Amid criticisms regarding staff shortages at the new AIIMS facilities in various States, Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Sunday said that he would not allow any dilution in the standards of teaching and faculty at the institutions and would protect the brand.
Presently, 22 AIIMS across the country under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya SurakshaYojana have been approved till date. Out of the 22 AIIMS, teaching and learning, research, and patient care services are being provided in 16 AIIMS, of which six are fully functional at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. The others are at various stages of operationalisation.
Addressing the BJMFCON 2024, a forum of doctors from Bihar and Jharkhand practising in Delhi and NCR, Nadda said that AIIMS-Delhi was set up in the 60s and it was only in the 80s that it became a brand name.
“It takes 10 to 20 years for any institution to grow and function in full swing. I will not allow the dilution of the standards of AIIMS and will protect the brand name,” he said.
To address staffing challenges, he highlighted the significant increase in the number of medical colleges over the past decade, which aims to boost the supply of trained healthcare professionals.
No compromise will be made in the faculty recruitment, he added.
Nadda said that the groundbreaking ceremony for AIIMS-Darbhanga will soon be held, and the commissioning of AIIMS-Deoghar has been done with the recruitment of staff underway.
“In the 2017 health policy, we tried to make it comprehensive and holistic. Earlier, the stress was on the curative aspect but now the focus is on preventive, promotive, curative palliative and rehabilitative aspects -- a holistic approach,” he said.
Nadda said that the facilities which were earlier called primary health care centres and sub-centres have been converted into Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. At present, there are 1.73 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and their quality assessment is being done digitally, he said.
Under the Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme, every district hospital offers free dialysis, he said and added that in the last 10 years, the number of medical colleges have been increased from 387 to 786 while 156 district hospitals have been converted into medical colleges.
“Could you imagine a medical college in Purnia, Saharan, Samastipur, Siwan, and Buxar in Bihar and Dumka, Hazaribagh, Palamu, and Koderma in Jharkhand?” he said, adding that there is a plan to increase PG and MBBS seats by more than 75,000.
