Many doctors of government medical colleges have applied for the vacant faculty positions at AIIMS-Patna, attracted by the prospect of better pay and working conditions.
Sources said 102 candidates have applied for the 125 vacant faculty positions at AIIMS-Patna over the past 12 days.
“Besides private practitioners in the city, doctors working with government hospitals and medical colleges at present have also applied for the vacancies,” said an administrative official of AIIMS, who did not want to be named. He also refused to divulge the names of the applicants.
On August 17, AIIMS-Patna, issued an advertisement to recruit faculty. There are 23 posts for professor, 20 posts for additional professor, 31 posts for associate professor and 51 posts for assistant professor. The application process started on August 30 and would continue till September 29.
Those who have postgraduate degrees like MS or MD or MCh or DM can apply for the vacancies. All the details are available on the website of the health cradle, www.aiimspatna.org.
Twenty doctors from government medical colleges, like Patna Medical College and Hospital, Nalanda Medical College and Hospital, Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences and Patna Dental College and Hospital, had also applied for faculty positions at AIIMS-Patna last year. A few doctors, who had been successful in getting the jobs, were Pragya Kumar, Hemali H. Sinha, S.K. Mukund, Arun Prasad.
Pragya, who was earlier an assistant professor at the community medicine department of the PMCH, clinched the same post at the AIIMS. Sinha was an associate professor at the gynaecology department of the PMCH. She joined as professor in obstetrics and gynaecology department of the new health cradle. Mukund was assistant professor at Patna Dental College. He got the same post at Patna-AIIMS. Prasad, a medical officer at Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology, joined AIIMS as an assistant professor.
Sinha said: “As AIIMS-Patna is a central institution, the pay grade is better than state-run medical colleges. Professors here get grade pay of Rs 10,500. In the PMCH, they are paid Rs 8,700. Also, doctors at the AIIMS get non-practising allowance.”
This is a perk given to doctors to not practise outside the medical college and hospital.
Sinha added: “The AIIMS also has a better work culture.”
Doctors who don’t work at Patna-AIIMS also agreed with her. “One can get a direct promotion while taking a job at AIIMS-Patna , which they might not have got while working at a state medical college. Last year, an assistant professor of the PMCH got a job as a professor at the new medical college,” said a doctor at PMCH.
He added that a doctor’s prestige also gets a boost when he or she works at a reputable institution like the AIIMS.
