Six AIIMS not functional, even after 16 years: Report

NEW DELHI: The government, which had floated hopes of affordable healthcare by announcing that 20 institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) would be set up, has failed to make the first six such institutes fully functional even 16 years after their conception.

The progress of the project has been tardy and it has faced major problems, said the parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare in its report on the functioning of new AIIMS (phase-i) under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

“Although six new AIIMS have been made functional, but many facilities are yet to be made available for the patients,” said the report tabled in Lok Sabha last week by the committee headed by Ram Gopal Yadav.

“Even though the project was announced long ago in the year 2003, these AIIMS-LIKE institutions in phase-i are yet to become fully functional as an institute of national importance as AIIMS, Delhi,” it said.

The committee cited the report of the comptroller and auditor general (CAG) of India and said that shortage of faculty posts ranged from 55% to 83% in six new AIIMS, including Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, and Rishikesh. The shortage of non-faculty posts ranged from 77% to 97%, the report said. In many AIIMS, the infrastructure required is available but super-specialty departments are non-functional because of the acute shortage of the medical faculty and specialists, the panel highlighted.

“This is a typical example of constructing buildings without foundation. With no staff, the infrastructure and resources are lying untapped and unutilized. There is a dire need to address this acute shortage as it has a direct impact on the quality of health service and medical education in the institutes,” it said.

The capital cost of each new AIIMS under phase-i of PMSSY was estimated by the health ministry in 2004 to be ₹284.50 crore (₹1,707 crore for all six AIIMS). In 2006, a revised capital cost of ₹332 crore was approved for each new AIIMS.

In March 2010, the ministry obtained a revised approval of ₹820 crore for each new AIIMS.