State AIIMS: Government struggling to fill posts and meet deadlines

The new AIIMS are being announced under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana that was launched in 2003 with objectives of correcting regional imbalances in the availability of affordable and reliable super speciality healthcare services. The scheme also meant to augment facilities for quality medical education in the country.

Since February 2014, India has announced the creation of nine AIIMS in the state capitals and Rs 4,949 crore funds were sanctioned for three in October 2015 , but the process of hiring faculty and finalising the master plan is proving to be a task.

In total, 9 new AIIMS have been announced in the country since Modi government came into power. (HT Photo)

“We are in the process of developing infrastructure and filling up the faculty and other posts. It may take some time as we want truly committed people for the job. We have rejected several applications because AIIMS is not merely a hospital, it is an institution par excellence,” says Union health minister JP Nadda.

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced four new AIIMS in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh in his 2014 Budget speech. The four AIIMS are to come up in Mangalagiri near Guntur in Andhra Pradesh, Kalyani in West Bengal, Nagpur in Maharashtra and Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh.

In 2016, two more AIIMS were sanctioned in Bathinda and Gorakhpur and one more was sanctioned this year in the North East region in Assam.

Design consultants have been appointed for all the three AIIMS on the basis of a global bid as per mandate of the Cabinet. The Master Plan for these AIIMS has also been finalized, and detailed designs are under preparation.

Since 2003, the setting up of 13 AIIMS has been announced under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojna, of which only the hospitals at  Bhubaneshwar, Bhopal, Raipur, Jodhpur, Rishikesh and Patna are treating patients and teaching medical students.

The hospital construction for AIIMS Rae Bareli is ongoing, and the finance minister had announced two more AIIMS for Jharkhand and Gujarat in this year’s Budget speech.