Valiathan committee draws flak for bid to ‘corporatise’ premier medical institution.
In a report that may irk political bosses, a panel appointed by the government has told it to grant full autonomy to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and suggested that the health minister stay away from the premier medical institution’s functioning.
The four-member committee headed by MS Valiathan was set up to recommend ways to improve the functioning of AIIMS and turn it into a centre of excellence and a leader in public health. Its report, tabled in parliament on Friday, suggested changes in the act, and rules and regulations governing AIIMS to enhance its autonomy and give primacy to science and education.
Health ministers have traditionally been the president of the AIIMS’s governing body. The issue of autonomy heated up during the UPA government’s last stint when former health minister Anbumani Ramadoss had a confrontation with former AIIMS director P Venugopal.
“As the jurisdiction of the ministry of health and family welfare (MoHFW) extends over numerous institutions across India, including two institutions of national importance — AIIMS and PGI — and several more AIIMS-type institutions are on the anvil, it would no longer be practical or productive for the health minister to preside over individual institutions,” the report said. It suggested the government adopt the “time-tested model” of the ministry of human resource development for the IITs.
The recommendations assume significance in the backdrop of the government’s announcement to set up six more AIIMS-type institutions. The recommendations will also set the norms for these institutions. The committee recommended measures to encourage researchers and reward meritorious faculty. It sought the retirement age for extraordinary faculty members to be raised from 62 to 65, besides proposing an incentive of Rs10,000 for researchers and professors for papers published in journals. It recommended encouraging faculty to take up consultancy for Indian industry.
In a suggestion that has evoked strong reaction from a section of AIIMS’s faculty, the report says AIIMS should form consortia with research institutions and industry to develop and transfer for commercialisation a range of products and processes.
“The Valiathan committee report shall open the gates for corporatisation of AIIMS, introducing measures for semi-privatisation and a pervasive control of corporate sector in the garb of public-private partnership,” said Dr Vikas Bajpai of the AIIMS’s Progressive Medicos and Scientists Forum.
On Friday, senior BJP leader LK Advani had raised the issue in the House. “The question whether AIIMS is heading for privatisation should be discussed threadbare,” he had said.
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