The concern of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Bhubaneswar, over shortage of faculties may go away soon as over 100 new faculty members are likely to join the premier institute shortly.
This will be the biggest ever recruitment of faculties ever carried out by AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, since its inception.
“We had advertised for 250 positions in 41 departments. More than 1,200 candidates had responded. We found 900 eligible among them to participate in the recruitment process. In the end, we have finalised names of 100 candidates,” said Ashok Mohapatra, Director of AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, addressing a press conference here on Friday.
“We looked for quality faculties for the Institute during the recruitment process that lasted for six months from August last to February this year. It is very difficult to find a suitable candidate having standard for an institute like AIIMS. Shortage of candidates was so acute that no one turned up for five to six departments,” said Dr Mohapatra.
At present, the institute has 29 departments. If selected candidates join their duty, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, would have 35 to 36 functional departments. Apart from this, existing departments would be strengthened.
The AIIMS Director said: “We deliberately restrained ourselves from filling up all posts. We do not want candidates without having requisite qualification and quality to join the Institute.”
Currently, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, is manned by 60 regular and 66 contractual faculties.
Union Health and Family Welfare Minister J. P. Nadda would visit the campus on Saturday. He is scheduled to inaugurate AYUSH centre built over 30,000 sq ft area. The Union Minister will also inaugurate modern CT Scan equipment which cost around Rs.11 crore.
“Very few institutes in India have got such CT Scan machine which will take 2 seconds to scan brain and 10 seconds for heart. Digital radiography and Mammography equipment will also start functioning from Saturday,” he said.
AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, has four batches of MBBS students and three batches of nursing students. The counselling for next batches will be completed by July and August. After that AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, will have full number of students – 550 MBBS students and around 340 nursing students.
According to Dr. Mohapatra, AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, has progressed comparatively faster than other five new AIIMS set up simultaneously at different places.
“Around 98 per cent of academic blocks of MBBS and nursing are complete. About 95 per cent of package I comprising of academic block, administrative block, auditorium and AYUSH building which cost around Rs.75 crore have been completed. About Rs.260 crore will be spent for package II which include hospital building and other medical instruments. But due to time overrun, the cost may escalate to Rs.320 crore,” said AIIMS Director.
The AIIMS, Bhubaneswar, is likely to open PG courses in five to six departments, mostly in basic sciences, by July.
