AIIMS clears proposal to hike faculty retirement age by 2 yrs
THE PROPOSAL TO MEET THE SHORTAGE OF DOCTORS NEEDS TO BE APPROVED BY THE CENTRE BEFORE IT CAN BE IMPLEMENTED
NEW DELHI: The governing and institute bodies of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) cleared a proposal on Friday to increase the retirement age of faculty members from 65 to 67 years.
The proposal, aimed at meeting an acute shortage of doctors, needs to be approved by the central government before it can be implemented.
“We have such a rich talent pool that we keep losing to the private sector. Most of the highly experienced staff that gets retired still has about a decade of work left. These are assets to our institute,” said Dr MC Misra, director, AIIMS.
“The proposal has been passed by both the top bodies and will now go to the Cabinet for approval,” said Dr Misra.
The development, however, has miffed young doctors, who feel the move will hamper their growth prospects.
“There is going to be stagnation at the top, and in effect, it will affect the recruitment of new professors. The proposal needs to be thought through,” said an assistant professor at AIIMS.
AIIMS gets about 8,000 to 10,000 out-patient cases daily, of which about 2,500 need to be admitted daily.
The institute faces a shortage of 10% of doctors due to various reasons, including delayed recruitment processes.
In May, during a rally at Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, PM Narendra Modi announced enhancing the superannuation age of all non-teaching doctors in Central Health Service to 65 years.
“With this step, we retain our experienced doctors for a longer period and provide quality health services to citizens, particularly the poor,” PM Modi had tweeted.
However, the same rule may not apply to the post of director, AIIMS, as it is an administrative post. Director’s post is falling vacant in January, 2017, for which applications have already been invited through an advertisement.