All India Institute of Medical Sciences-Patna (AIIMS-Patna) has issued advertisements to hire 240 faculty members in the medical college.

If the recruitment drive is successful, the institute would be able to tide over the faculty member crisis that is not only affecting teaching in the MBBS course but also patient care at the hospital, doctors associated with AIIMS-Patna said. At present, the institute has 54 faculty members though it has sanction for 305.

Many departments are being run by single doctors at the hospital - including medicine, dentistry, cardiology, and radiotherapy. Some departments, including ophthalmology and urology, don't have a single doctor. These departments exist only on paper.

AIIMS-Patna director Prabhat Kumar Singh said the target is to complete the first phase of recruitment by June this year. "The applications have to be submitted for the posts by April and the screening would be conducted in May and June. We would declare the results by June," he said. He said that the institute would not necessarily fill up all vacant posts through this recruitment drive.

"Only if we find competent people against the posts, they would be hired. Otherwise, we will reissue advertisements," he said. Sources said the AIIMS-Patna administration was taking extra care because of past experience.

The faculty recruitment drive initiated by the premiere institute to fill up 195 posts was stalled midway last year by the Union ministry of health and family welfare - all AIIMS branches are under the Centre - as certain criteria related to age limit were not adhered to.

The then deputy director (administration) Anil Kishore Yadav had written a letter to the ministry raising questions over the recruitment of faculty members, after which the drive was stalled.

AIIMS-Patna director Singh said that apart from fulfilling the various posts at the institute, his focus was on expansion. "The construction of various buildings is complete but the hospital has not taken possession of the buildings," he said. "We are soon going to use the spaces including the outpatient department building, indoors, emergency and trauma building and patients wards."

Shortly after taking charge in February this year, Singh had told The Telegraph: "Upgrading the teaching facility at AIIMS-Patna would be my prime focus because institutions like AIIMS have been created to produce quality doctors but strengthening infrastructure and curbing manpower shortage would also be looked after simultaneously."