Address faculty shortage immediately in AIIMS, says Parliamentary panel

Expressing concern over 232 faculty posts lying vacant in AIIMS, a parliamentary panel has recommended that the shortage be addressed immediately, saying “it has a direct bearing on the delivery of quality healthcare and imparting of quality education”.

“The Committee, therefore, recommends that the faculty shortage at AIIMS must be squarely addressed without further delay as it has a direct bearing on the delivery of quality healthcare and imparting of quality education,” said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in its 93rd report on Demands for Grants 2016-17.

The Committee also recommended intensive monitoring of the execution of the expansion work of OPD at AIIMS so that the project is executed within the approved cost and designated timeline. It sought to be apprised of time overrun and cost escalation, if any, of the 12 completed projects and the reasons behind the shelved projects. It also asked the (Administration) Department to inform it about the approved cost of projects in progress and tendering/award stage and the designated timeline for their execution and operationalisation. The Committee took a serious view of the fact that when asked to indicate the progress in pending development projects at AIIMS, the Department merely stated that “every effort is being made to resolve the issues... with no time and cost overruns...” 

“The Committee had expected the Department to apprise it of the status of the completion of all pre-project formalities, approved costs of projects and set timeframe of their implementation and expenditure incurred,” it said.