In the past five months, 14 assistant professors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have resigned over lack of office space. The exodus has prompted the Faculty Association at the institute to request Director M.C. Misra to put recruitment on hold till the administration finds space to accommodate new employees.
Despite filling nearly 300 vacancies, in two recruitment drives, AIIMS still has 118 vacant positions. The Faculty Association has opposed any further recruitment, Dr. C.S. Bal, president, of the Faculty Association of AIIMS, said.
“I have written to the Director. We have had two rounds of recruitment recently and nearly 300 posts were filled. In most cases, the surgical ward or the new maternity wing is not ready. Most of the new employees do not have an office space or a house ready to be allotted to them. We cannot put doctors on night duty, if they stay outside the campus,” Dr. Bal said.
Despite requests from the staff to freeze hiring, as of June 21, 2016, the Director had advertised 27 posts for assistant professors, across nine departments.
Patient-doctor balance“Housing is a problem in a city like Delh. Which is why we have newer projects to redevelop available land inside AIIMS. Having said that, doctors also need to understand why this space crunch is created. I cannot have a hospital where 60 per cent of the space is for office staff to occupy and my patients get only 40 per cent. Increasingly, across government hospitals, doctors tend to eat into the open spaces meant for patient care. The expectations Doctors come in with the expectation of multiple office spaces for out-patient departments, in-patient departments and in the teaching blocks. This is impossible to meet. Private hospitals offer small cubicles and doctors work with that,” said Ali Rizvi, Joint Secretary, Health Ministry.
The shortage of space has been a growing concern across departments, added Dr Bal. Out of the 14 doctors who resigned, three were from the department of oncology.
