Missing Doctors: Seven AIIMS Battle Mounting Vacancies

AIIMS Director M Srinivas at makeshift patient tent Image credit AIIMS, New Delhi
Govt Gives AIIMS Vacancy Statistics in Rajya Sabha
By Raisina Correspondent
New Delhi, February 5: Confirming an earlier report by The Raisina Hills of excessive doctors’ vacancies in AIIMS in New Delhi, the government in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha said that the seven premier medical institutions all have vacant positions in excess of 30 per cent each.
In a written reply to a question of Congress leader Jairam Ramesh in Rajya Sabha, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare gave details of vacancies in the seven operational All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
The faculty vacancies are 34 per cent in AIIMS New Delhi, said the government in its reply in the Rajya Sabha. The Raisina Hills in its report had quoted the AIIMS Director M. Srinivas, saying that out of 1200 sanctioned posts of senior doctors there existed vacancies of 400 posts, 30 per cent, as on December 25 last year.
The faculty vacancy in AIIMS Bhopal was 24 per cent. One-fourth of the faculty posts in AIIMS Bhubaneswar were vacant, said the government.
Additionally, the government told the Rajya Sabha that there existed 28 per cent vacancies in faculty positions in AIIMS Jodhpur.
The vacancy in faculty positions was 38 per cent for AIIMS Raipur while it was 27 per cent in AIIMS Patna. There were 39 per cent faculty positions vacant in AIIMS Rishikesh, said the government in its reply in the Rajya Sabha.
“Yesterday, an answer to a question asked in the Rajya Sabha of the Minister of Health & Family Welfare revealed a most disturbing statistic relating to the seven fully operational AIIMS institutions in the country,” said Ramesh on the status of vacancies in seven operational AIIMS.
The government claims that 22 of the 26 approved AIIMS have become operational. However, the doctors in AIIMS in New Delhi told The Raisina Hills that the patient load has not decreased because of lack of infrastructure and doctors’ strength in the new AIIMS in other states.
The shortage of the faculties in other AIIMS-type medical institutions has come out to be more astounding in the government reply in the Rajya Sabha.
There are twelve cities where AIIMS-type institutions are partially operational. “The faculty shortages are 41 per cent in Mangalgiri, 23 per cent in Nagpur, 39 per cent in Kalyani, 37 per cent in Gorakhpur; 33 per cent in Bathinda, 54 per cent in Bilaspur (HP), 43 per cent in Guwahati, 34 per cent in Deogarh, 36 per cent in Bibinagar (Telangana), 49 per cent in Rae Bareli, 59.5 per cent in Rajkot, and 44 per cent in Jammu,” added Ramesh while sharing the details.
Quality of faculty apart, although questions have been raised about it, the extent of vacancies in faculty positions is staggering, added the former Union Minister. “What is most surprising is the position in the most prestigious AIIMS New Delhi itself, which in many ways is the mother institution,” added Ramesh.
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