AIIMS Kalyani Hiring: Health Department restricts No Objection Certificates to faculty, doctors

West Begal: The soon to begin hiring for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Kalyani by the Union Health ministry seems to have brought the health department on its toes, which is taking all measures to prevent the outflow of doctors and faculty from existing medical colleges to the proposed institution

Anticipating rush from state-run medical colleges and hospitals of professors and doctors, the health department has imposed a restriction on them of a 'no objection certificate' from the government, states a recent report in Telegraph

An official at Swarthy Bhavan confirmed to the daily, "We won't issue a no-objection certificate if there is an acute shortage of specialists in that discipline in any of our hospitals," he added. With state healthcare facilities short of doctors, super specialities are today facing operational difficulties, as well.

According to a ministry official's assessment in Delhi, there is a requirement of 500 senior doctors, inclusive of faculty for super speciality departments, and another 1,000 junior doctors for AIIMS Kalyani to become fully operational.

"The AIIMS network in Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh has been making up for the shortage of faculty by taking doctors from the medical colleges in those states. The same model can be implemented in Kalyani if it faces a resource problem," the ministry official added.

The state-run health institutions in Bengal face doctor paucity, especially at the district level. The super speciality hospitals set up by the state face functional problems due to an adequate number of doctors not being in employment at these healthcare facilities.

According to sources in the ministry, AIIMS Kalyani will throw open its outpatient departments (OPD), to the people of the state; and the wards will start functioning in phases, 18 months later.

"We expect to make all units, including the super speciality departments like gastroenterology, cardiology and neurosurgery, fully operational five years after the OPDs start," the official said.

With the outpatient department functional, the 100 seats medical college planned as part of the Rs 1,754-crore project, commissioned in 2016, will commence operations with 50 seats. There are plans to increase student intake at the medical college as well.

With better salary packages being offered by AIIMS Kalyani, the ministry is well prepared for the oncoming onslaught of people from other state health facilities to join AIIMS- Kalyani. Central Government remuneration is three times that offered by state authorities, reported the Telegraph.

"Anyone would like to work for AIIMS, more so because Kalyani is close to Calcutta," said an SSKM Hospital doctor.