Click to play videoNew Delhi: The residency of 183 senior resident doctors of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) will expire on Saturday but the administration has refused to extend it.
Coincidentally many of these doctors are those who had supported former AIIMS director Dr P Venugopal in his battle against Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss.
“There is a shortage of doctors and we want to work here, why are problems being created,” says Resident Doctor’s Association President Dr Kumar Harsh.
Already 150 faculty positions at the institute are lying vacant. If these 183 senior residents are asked to leave then there will be a total shortage of 333 doctors at the AIIMS.
The hospital had advertised for recruitment of senior residents on December 2 last year but withdrew the advertisement within two weeks without citing any clear reasons.
The AIIMS had also advertised for 129 faculty positions in December 2006 but no recruitments were made till July 2008 because of the differences between the Health Minister and the then AIIMS director.
In November 2008 the AIIMS published an advertisement for 92 faculty positions for the reserved category but the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) intervened and asked the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) at the Health Ministry for a clarification on the 100 per cent reservation.
The DoPT has now replied saying that even if the reservation backlog was to be taken into account, only 34 out of the 92 faculty positions can be reserved.
These discrepancies have highlighted the mismanagement of the AIIMS which is still waiting for a director.
“The ministry has treated us very badly. We are happy that the PMO has intervened,” says President Faculty Association Dr Binod Khaitan.
The biggest victim of the politics being played out between the Health Ministry and doctors at AIIMS are the patients. An acute shortage of doctors at this premier medical institute has out a question mark on patient care being provided here.
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