New Delhi: The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) need to follow the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) to boost its financial health and improve the administration, a committee set up by the government has recommended.
The four-member committee headed by renowned cardiologist M.S. Valiathan, said that like IITs, AIIMS doctors should be allowed to earn from consultancy. This could end desertions to private hospitals and to medical institutions abroad in search of greener pastures.
“Consultancy should be encouraged among faculty either on individual basis or department wise. Various formula exists among IITs for sharing consultancy fees between the consultants and institutions,” the committee has recommended.
“AIIMS should also form a committee to study the consultancy practice in other scientific organizations and evolve a scheme of its own.”
Several doctors have left AIAMS for a better earnings. While some have joined private hospitals in India, several others had left the country for greener pastures.
AIIMS should also learn from IITs how to improve its management.
It has urged the health minister not to function just as the president of the institute.
“As the jurisdiction of the ministry of health and family welfare extends over numerous institutions all across India, including two institution of national importance (AIIMS and PGI-Chandigarh) and several more AIIMS-type institutions on the anvil, it would no longer be practical or productive for the minister of health to preside over individual institutions.
“We would, therefore, recommend the adoption of the time-tested model of the ministry of HRD (human resource development) for IITs and suggest that the minister of health may preside over a joint council of AIIMS—type institutions, which should be created for this purpose,” Dr. Valiathan said.
