114 faculty, 1864 non-faculty posts vacant in Bhubaneswar AIIMS: RTI
The footfall at AIIMS Bhubaneswar has been increasing over the years
BHUBANESWAR: Out of the 305 sanctioned faculty positions at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhubaneswar, 114 are lying vacant, an RTI query has revealed.
The institute has managed to fill up 191 faculty posts besides 1,912 non-faculty positions (including regular, deputation, contractual and out-sourced) out of the 3,776 sanctioned posts.
As many as 1,864 non-faculty posts (nearly half of the sanctioned posts) are lying vacant in the institution.
The details, valid as on July 1, were provided by the central public information officer of AIIMS Bhubaneswar, S K Pani, following a plea submitted by activist Akhand.
Though the faculty and non-faculty posts are lying vacant, the hospital is getting more of patients than the previous years. In 2017-18, the hospital had received 6.36 lakh OPD patients and 18,026 IPD patients. The number of OPD and IPD patients touched 8.16 lakh and 20,179 respectively in 2018-19.
“The number of patients is increasing every year, but the vacant posts are not getting filled up. This creates problem for patients coming from different parts of the state and neighbouring West Bengal. For a CT scan or MRI, sometimes patients wait for more than a month or two. Due to lack of doctors and other staff, people wait for days to undergo surgeries,” said Akhand.
The RTI answer revealed that 11 medical machines are not functioning. These machines, including defibrilator, bed side cardiac monitor, ventilator and portable cardiac monitor, are non-functional/defective.“But all other high-end equipments are working properly at AIIMS Bhubaneswar,” read the official reply.
AIIMS Bhubaneswar director Gitanjali Batmanabane said, “Out of 1,864 vacancies, 700 posts will be filled up by promotion and around 100 posts by deputation. The vacancies which are not filled up by promotion has been caused by non-availability of eligible staff at the lower posts as they are not completing the required length of service. AIIMS Bhubaneswar is a new institution and therefore regular staff have been hired during the last few years. So they need to have the required number of years.”
She said around 100 senior and junior resident vacancies are there. “There are some courses for which residents do not want to join and we don’t have some courses in certain subjects. Appointment orders have been issued for about 200 nurses and paramedical staff. AIIMS New Delhi has issued advertisement for 600 nurses for all the new AIIMS,” she added.
On non-functional equipment, the director said this is bound to happen in any hospital. However, all high-end equipments are working well, she said.
“Any equipment which is not working will be repaired as we have comprehensive maintenance contract. We have 52 ECG machines, 518 syringe infusion pumps, more than 500 cardiac monitors and 30 defibrillators. If one is under repair, it will not impact the working of the hospital at all,” she added.
The institution closed walk-in OPD services on July 10 until further orders. It took this decision after witnessing several positive cases among patients and hospital staff then. Many of the hospital staff were staying in containment zones and they could not come to the hospital. Some medical staff were under quarantine too. Because of this, the hospital faced shortage of staff and closed the OPD, said a doctor.