Interview for the second phase of faculty recruitment at AIIMS-Patna ended on Tuesday, director Prabhat Kumar Singh said over the phone from New Delhi.

Singh, one of the officials who conducted the interviews from August 25, told The Telegraph that the recruitment process is being held to fill posts in ophthalmology, paediatric surgery, dentistry, oncology, gastroenterology and other departments.

'Results of the second, third and fourth phase of recruitment will be released together,' Singh said. 'The result of the promotion interviews would also be brought out along with these results.'

Sources said the third and fourth phase of recruitment would be conducted between September 29 and October 4.

Interviews for faculty members in departments such as general surgery, ear, nose and throat, orthopaedics, anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, community medicine, pathology, forensic medicine, radiology and microbiology will be taken in the next phases.

Singh, however, said posts would not be filled if suitable candidates are not found from the interviews. 'We are in no hurry to recruit faculty members. In case we don't find eligible candidates for posts in some department, we might conduct interviews again after six months. We don't want to compromise with the quality of faculty members,' the AIIMS-Patna director said.

At present, AIIMS has 54 faculty members against the sanctioned strength of 305.

The first recruitment process for AIIMS-Patna was held in July 2013 after MBBS classes started the previous year.

In 2015, another recruitment process was undertaken but it was mired in controversy over raising the upper age ceiling without the approval of the highest body in AIIMS. 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 entire process was scrapped.

Director Singh said even if faculty members for the departments are selected, starting all the super-speciality departments will not be an easy task. 'We can't start all the departments unless we get buildings. Things will go simultaneously. If we get space and infrastructure, departments will be started, otherwise we will start departments one by one when we get floor space and machines,' he said.