AIIMS' faculty shortage: Health ministry likely to introduce central recruitment

The Union health ministry is examining the possibility of introducing a centralised recruitment for faculty and non-faculty at various AIIMS across India to address the shortage of personnel at these premier health institutes.

A committee comprising Dr V K Paul, Member (Health) NITI Aayog; Additional Secretary, PMSSY, Ministry of Health; and Director, AIIMS, New Delhi has been constituted in this regard.

“Following the Central Institute Body (CIB) meeting held on January 8 at AIIMS Bhubaneswar, with a view to strengthen the process of recruitment of faculty and non-faculty in various AIIMS, including examining the possibility of introducing centralised recruitment, the committee is constituted,” an order issued on February 28 said.

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Around 44 per cent of the faculty posts are lying vacant in 18 new AIIMS, with AIIMS Rajkot having the lowest with just 40 faculties out of the sanctioned 183 posts, the ministry had told the Lok Sabha last year.

AIIMS Rajkot is followed by AIIMS Vijaypur and AIIMS Gorakhpur having the lowest number of faculties as against the number of sanctioned posts.

Adequate faculty posts have been sanctioned by the government for all
newly-created All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) for teaching MBBS students, the ministry had said.

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“The central recruitment system will make the appointment process of faculties and non-faculties more transparent and smooth. Besides, it will also facilitate their easy transfer from one AIIMS to another. Currently, these individual AIIMS recruit their own personnel. It has been seen that talented doctors are reluctant for positions outside their states where they are based or in hard to reach areas,” an official source explained, according to a PTI report.

According to the ministry’s data, of the sanctioned posts of 4,026, only 2,259 posts have been filled in the 18 new AIIMS.

Listing the provisions which have been facilitated for augmenting faculty strength in the newly set up AIIMS, the ministry in its reply had stated that a Standing Selection Committee (SSC) has been constituted in each new AIIMS to facilitate expeditious filling up of vacancies and the upper age limit for direct recruitment against the posts of Professor and Additional Professor has been raised from 50 years to 58 years.

Permission has also been granted for taking serving faculty from government medical colleges/institutes on deputation basis, contractual engagement of retired faculty of government medical colleges/institutes up to 70 years of age has also been allowed and overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card holders have been allowed to be appointed on faculty positions.

Besides, a visiting faculty scheme has been formulated to allow national and international faculty to work in the newly set up AIIMS for teaching and academic purposes. Temporary diversion of faculty posts has been allowed on loan basis from one department to another, which can be filled up on contractual basis and advertisement for recruitment with one-year validity has been put in place to fast track the process of filling up vacancies.

Besides, AIIMS Delhi, six new AIIMS Bihar (Patna), Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Madhya Pradesh (Bhopal), Odisha (Bhubaneswar), Rajasthan (Jodhpur) and Uttarakhand (Rishikesh) – were approved under phase 1 of the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) and are fully functional.

Out of the 16 AIIMS established between 2015 and 2022, MBBS classes and outpatient department services have been started in 10 institutes, while only MBBS classes have been started in another two. The remaining four institutes are at different stages of development.