Ghulam Nabi Azad, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare has ranked AIIMS as the best medical college in the country. He said that it continues to fulfill the objectives of developing teaching patterns, providing educational facilities of the highest order and attaining self-sufficiency in post-graduate medical education. The Alumni of this great Institution are not only providing healthcare in the country but also in most developed countries including the US and UK.
Addressing the 40th Convocation of AIIMS, Azad said that the medical institution was initially conceived and founded to produce faculty, undertake research and serve as a referral institute. But over a period of time, it has become over-burdened with patient care. For this reason, the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare took up the following initiatives to strengthen healthcare delivery in Government sector.
- Six new AIIMS were taken up in the first phase of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Surakhsha Yojana. The medical colleges at these six AIIMS have started from the current academic session.
- 19 medical colleges were taken up for up-gradations to provide advanced tertiary level and super-speciality care, spread in different parts of the country under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Surakhsha Yojana.
- To ease pressure on Delhi AIIMS, the green-field development of the second campus of AIIMS at Jhajjar would provide state of the art facilities for teaching, patient care and research.
To overcome the shortage of teaching staff in Medical Colleges the ceiling on age limit has been raised from 60 to 70 years, DNB qualifications have been recognised for appointment as faculty, number of students in PG, the teacher student ratio relaxed from 1:1 to 1:2 for post-graduate and super-speciality courses, the ratio has been further liberalised to 1:3 for Anaesthesiology, Forensic Medicine, Radiotherapy, Medical Oncology and Surgical Oncology recently, Medical Colleges have been permitted to start PG courses in pre and para clinical disciplines at the stage of 3rd renewal without waiting for recognition and Postgraduate degrees of five English speaking countries (US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand) have been recognised for teaching.
For encouraging posting of doctors in rural areas the following steps have been taken:
- Additional marks will be given in the Post Graduate Entrance Examination at the rate of 10% for each year of rural service subject to a maximum of 30 per cent.
- 50 per cent seats in post graduate diploma courses have been reserved for medical officers in Government service who have served for at least three years in remote and difficult areas.
Azad said that these path-breaking decisions have brought in positive results, never seen before in the past six decades. In just over three year’s time, the availability of MBBS seats has gone up from 32,892 to 44,302, including 300 seats in the new AIIMS, an increase of 11,410 seats. The number of PG seats has increased from 13,000 to 22,503 an increase of 9,503 seats. 66 new medical colleges have been established raising the number from 289 to 355. The Health Minister called upon all those receiving degrees to join the national effort and take the lead in extending the fruits of scientific advancements to the poorest households in the remotest regions of the country. He also distributed certificates of degrees during the Convocation.
EH News Bureau
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