In view of the shortfall of teaching and non-teaching employees, the Union Health Ministry has gone ahead with making recruitments on contractual basis to fill up the vacant posts in the new AIIMS-like institutes in Patna, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Raipur and Rishikesh.
Initially, the plans were to recruit the staff on a regular basis. The move follows concerns that though the institutes have become functional and students are enrolled since 2013, yet around 80 per cent of the total sanctioned 1,048 and 2,064 post for doctors and faculty staff and paramedical staff respectively are yet to be filled up in both the categories.
While the move to recruit staff on contract basis aims to ensure quality and non-interruptive education to the students, it may result into
higher financial burden with the Government ending up paying more salary to such candidates.
“As we are not getting the regular staff despite issuing several advertisements, we have relaxed recruitment and reservation policies to allow hiring meet the shortage of the faculty at all level.
“We will appoint non-teaching staff such as paramedical employees and nurses and senior faculty including Additional Professor, Associate Professor and Assistant Professor in each institute on contract basis,” said a senior official from the Health Ministry.
We are relaxing the reservation policy. In case we do not find suitable candidate under the reserved category, we may appoint the one from the general category, he added.
City wise, Rishikesh AIIMS has recruited just 112 doctors including faculty/tutor so far while Raipur has so far appointed 191 doctors, including faculty staff for providing medical and teaching facilities to the patients and students who have enrolled there.
Similar is the situation in AIIMS-like institutes in Jodhpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal. Against 1,048 sanctioned posts for faculty staff, Bhopal has filled up 166 posts, Bhubaneswar has recruited 162 doctors Patna 169 doctors and Jodhpur 179 posts.
Similarly, the Government has not been able to appoint paramedical staff for its efficient functioning. Against sanctioned strength of 2,064 posts, actual strength is 214 in AIIMS in Bhopal, 244 in Bhubaneswar, 223 in Jodhpur, 171 in Patna, 133 in Raipur and 146 in AIIMS-like institute in Rishikesh.
Overall, around 5,000 posts were allocated in six premier institutes each set up under the under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) project, with each institute costing Rs800 crore to the Government.