HYDERABAD: Within four months of the academic year starting at AIIMS, Bibinagar, the mentorship of the campus changed to Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Pondicherry from AIIMS, Bhopal. The Central government’s delay in setting up AIIMS, Bibinagar campus, and the State government’s inability to intervene has led to the present predicament that the medical institution is facing.The institute was supposed to open doors of out-patient department (OPD) from December 26 which did not happen.
Speaking to Express, Dr Sarman Singh, director of AIIMS Bhopal said, “The OPD services have not been started because of the shift in mentorship. We weren’t given any kind of information as to why the mentorship was changed. Recruitment of contractual faculty for many posts has been completed.”
Yadadri-Bhavanagiri Collector Anitha Ramachandran, said, “The shift happened recently on December 16. From what I know, and this is not confirmed yet, the OPD services should now be starting around February 2020.” The AIIMS academic building is currently situated in the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science (NIMS), Bibinagar, where academic classes started from August 27 this year. The NIMS in Bibinagar is however, not a teaching hospital and only caters to OPD services.
Dr Maheshwar Lakkireddy, in-charge superintendent, NIMS, Bibinagar explained, “We cater to close to 100 patients in OPD on a daily basis. However, doctors from NIMS cannot work in the AIIMS OPD as NIMS is an autonomous institution under the State Act, whereas AIIMS is an autonomous institution under the Central Act.”
He further added, “NIMS Bibinagar started OPD in 2015. We cater to 30 per cent patients who used to go to NIMS, Punjagutta. If in-patient facilities start here, we can take over a total of 40 per cent of the load from NIMS Punjagutta, at least in a few of specific departments.”