Good Morning Dear Reader,
Almost as old as India’s first IIT—a much respected and storied education system—is India’s AIIMS. The 70-year-old All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi is the pinnacle of medical treatment, research, and teaching. On average, 9,300 patients visit the outpatient department every day. The wait list for tests in some fields can be a nerve-racking nine to 12 months. So, in the early 2000s, experiencing the pressure and congestion at the hospital first-hand, the then Prime Minister AB Vajpayee suggested setting up more AIIMS across the country.
Nearly 20 years and many fits-and-starts later, six are functional; 16 more, announced in 2014, are in the works. The idea is to have one AIIMS in each state capital. Nothing can be nobler or more urgent than this. Yet, when you read our article story today on www.multimediastudio.net, you’ll wonder why such projects, like armies in the field, advance at the speed of the slowest.
With no forethought in place, the government expected medical doctors to erect such institutes from scratch, taking a cue from the AIIMS Act penned in 1956. “I am a medical teacher but had to frame up to 350 individual tenders for civil works. We were unable to get proper financial advisors, and builders were not completing work on time despite incentives,” says one AIIMS director.
Thankfully, a 2006 amendment in the Act addressed one sticky, rather sore, point: the health minister will no longer be the President of an AIIMS. The political meddling is now reduced to an extent but a plethora of other issues are holding back these institutes—from recruitment to funds, from culture to a common vision. To what extent can the Delhi AIIMS DNA be replicated? What is optimal replication to even take on the brand name AIIMS?
A health official directly working with Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana, the agency that oversees construction, procurement of equipment, and hiring of staff for all AIIMS, says, “These six AIIMS will achieve their full potential only by 2030.”
As the third-gen AIIMS come up, can they afford the delays of the second-gen, posits Maitri in her wonderfully reported story. It’s a free read, please read and share widely to get it known to other #yusufbhandarkar #digitalmarketing