Acute faculty shortage in AIIMS-type institutes

The Government's attempt to open the institutes at par with Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is badly hit from the shortage of faculty.

More than half of the required faculty strength of 1830 in six such institutes in Bhopal, Jodhpur, Raipur, Rishikesh, Patna and Bhubaneswar were lying vacant as in March this year.

These institutes were conceived back in 2006 with the staff strength of 305 each but none could fill up the poss even after 12 years as the health ministry sources say they are just not available. Each institute has 100 seats for the MBBS course.

Inviting the faculty from India and abroad on contract and deputation basis to teach in these institutes is just one of the measures that the ministry has taken in the last few months to fill the gap as it will help in imbibinb an environment of academic excellence in these institutes.

As a ministry official admitted, "despite sustained efforts, we are unable to fill up faculty positions on regular basis to the full sanctioned strength, particularly in the super specialty branches like cardio, neuro and gastroenterology sectors, forcing up to let the institutes engage the visiting faculties."

The full-time faculty teaching in these institutes total up to 808 as against the sanctioned posts of 1830. The most acute is the shortage in Patna with just 100 teachers recruited, followed by 103 in Raipur, 137 in Bhopal and 138 in Jodhpur. Bhubaneshwar has the highest 173 fulltime teachers as against sanctioned posts of 305.

Under the scheme, professors daily honorarium of Rs 6,000, additional and associate professors Rs 4,000.

The visiting faculty that have acquired the medical degrees recognised by the Medical Council of India (MCI) from the five English-speaking countries of the US, the UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are being allowed to take up the assignments.

The duration of the visiting faculty is a minimum of four weeks and maximum two years.

Yet another measure adopted by the health ministry is to hire the retired professors on contract up to the age of 70.

"We are not getting good people because of several reasons," a ministry official said, pointing out that it has issued advertisements, hoping to fill up 55 to 60 per cent posts by September end.

By September end, the government also hopes that construction of the medical colleges, nursing colleges, hospital complex and trauma centres will be completed to let them start functioning fully.