Six NRIs in first batch of faculty for health hub - 41 medical teachers selected for JPNAIIMS; Union ministry to notify names soon

The site for Jai Prakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences in Patna. Telegraph picture

Jai Prakash Narayan All India Institute of Medical Sciences (JPNAIIMS), whose 100-seat medical college will become functional from the coming academic session, will have its first lot of medical teachers on board by the end of this month.

Officials said a panel of 41 doctors, including six non-resident Indian (NRI) medics, has been finalised and would soon be appointed by the Union ministry of health and family welfare through a notification.

Many of the doctors, selected for the prestigious institution, belong to Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna, and a few other medical institutions of the state.

“The first lot of appointees would teach non-clinical subjects such as anatomy, physiology, biochemistry and community medicine. A total of 91 doctors in the grades of professor, additional professor, associate professor, assistant professor, senior resident and super specialist are to be recruited,” said Dr Girish Kumar Singh, director, JPNAIIMS.

According to sources, over 5,000 doctors had applied for the 546 posts at the new AIIMS at Rishikesh, Bhopal, Patna, Jodhpur, Bhubaneswar and Raipur. The vacancies were advertised by the Union ministry of health and family welfare in January this year.

“The names of the appointees cannot be revealed without being notified officially. All I can say is we are getting a very good faculty here as the quality of the applicants was very good. Rest of the appointments will be made after admissions to the first batch are completed by July this year,” added Singh, who previously headed orthopaedics surgery department at King George’s Medical College, Lucknow.

About 20-25 per cent of the applicants were NRI doctors, many of them from Bihar. Many doctors of Indian origin with Indian Overseas Citizenship (IOC) also applied for the posts.

Following the scrutiny of data and short listing of the applicants, interviews were conducted about a month back and the merit list of successful candidates was prepared by a selection board appointed by the Centre.

The appointments are being made in a phase-wise manner in all the new AIIMS, as per the choice of posting of the candidates in the merit list.

The decision to set up AIIMS in the state capital, on the lines of the 50-year-old AIIMS in New Delhi, was taken by the central government to make tertiary medical care available to people.

While the plan was to start the construction in 2004, right after the foundation was laid by the then Vice-President, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, work could only begin in 2010 owing to change in the regime at the Centre.