‘AIIMS Bhopal is a rising star in medical education’: Director

NEW DELHI: All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Bhopal is among the six AIIMS to become operational in 2012. AIIMS Bhopal has 125 MBBS seats, 71 PG medical seats and UG 75 BSc nursing and 30 PG nursing seats. Dr Ajai Singh, director, AIIMS Bhopal, spoke to Careers360 about the functioning of the institute, MBBS in Hindi, and its plans for increasing seats and more. Edited excerpts below.

Q. Bhopal AIIMS launched over a decade ago. How has the journey been so far?

A. Six AIIMS were started in 2012 and AIIMS Bhopal was the only one in central India. New AIIMS were started to support the state government’s health delivery system. We were given four mandates – to produce medical leaders through quality education; to create hospital facilities so that people from central India do not go to other places for treatment; to create a system for collaborative research and to provide medical services in remote and tribal areas.

We started with five departments at AIIMS Bhopal and today we have more than 42. Now, we have 24 operation theatres, more than 250 faculties, around 800 resident doctors, 1,400 nursing staff and 3,000 other paramedical and technical staff. We are creating facilities for all kinds of treatments. We also have a seperate Ayush department in which five doctors are working to create coordination between modern and traditional medicine. We call it integrated health services in which experts of both modern and traditional medicine treat the patients.

Now, students do not need to rush to AIIMS Delhi for quality medical education. We started from 50 MBBS seats which has now increased to 125. Students need to give just Rs. 5,000 for a five-year medical course and we provide free hostels.

We are running modern medicine courses, nursing courses and paramedical courses. We are also working to provide specialist doctors and faculties.

Q. There has been criticism from a section of modern medicine practitioners against ‘mixing’ modern medicine with Ayurveda?

A. I personally believe that the reason behind the clash is lack of evidence for the claims made in Ayurveda and traditional medicine. Research in traditional medicine is being done and soon we will have evidence to back the claims.

The clash will remain till there is scientific proof for the claims made. However, I believe that these clashes will come down when experts of both traditional and modern medicines sit together and understand each other.

Under National Education Policy (NEP), it is envisioned that MBBS students should get a small exposure to Ayush. During the MBBS internship period, we send students to our Ayush department for 10 days training so that they can gain a basic understanding of traditional medicine.

Q. Even though AIIMS Bhopal was not ranked in 2021 and 2022, it was placed at 38 by the National Institute of Ranking Framework (NIRF) in 2023. What led to the institute securing this rank?

A. Unfortunately, AIIMS Bhopal was not working with a focussed policy framework. After joining in August, 2022, I set the priorities of the institute. I asked the officials to keep track of patients in OPD, number of available beds and utilisation, reason for refusal to admit patients and how can we prevent it. We also started a feedback and complaint system. We ensured availability of affordable medicines inside our campus and diagnostic services 24*7. We also created a Center of Excellence for teaching and training to train state medical officers to streamline emergency and trauma services.

We undertook a self-assessment and sought suggestions from alumni. They gave suggestions on improving the curriculum, hostels and libraries. We created a gym and sports complex. We provided all facilities on the lines of AIIMS Delhi. We also utilised funds for establishing new buildings and buying new equipment. These helped in NIRF ranking under medical category.

Also read NMC, QCI pave way for medical college ranking; NEET becomes a factor

Q. What role does AIIMS Bhopal play in the National Knowledge Network (NKN)?

A. The NKN connects 52 medical colleges across the country to share updated knowledge in the field. The mandates of NKN are to improve the quality of medical services, security of data, virtual classroom and reliability of content.

AIIMS Bhopal is committed towards these mandates. We are offering virtual classrooms. Our classroom lectures are reaching new medical colleges of Madhya Pradesh facing faculty shortage. Not only live classes, students of other medical colleges can watch AIIMS Bhopal’s high-quality recorded classroom lectures on YouTube.

Q. What was the impact of the zero cut-off of NEET PG 2023 in admissions at AIIMS Bhopal?

A. Zero cut-off means it was zero percentile not zero marks in NEET PG. I don’t want to speak on this sensitive issue. I believe it is our responsibility to provide quality medical education to students from weaker sections of the society.

Also read NEET PG 2024 seats up by 127%; Maharashtra government medical colleges has maximum PG seats

Q. What is your take on medical education in Hindi?

A. I think MBBS in Hindi is a very good initiative of the Madhya Pradesh government. Emerging from Hindi-medium schools, I found English a barrier in the initial days of my MBBS. I could not speak English and did not get good marks.

Our lectures are bilingual. We insist on English only for medical terminology. We have kept Hindi books of first-year MBBS, published by the Madhya Pradesh government. We also promote books written by our teachers in Hindi.

Q. How is AIIMS Bhopal strengthening research in medical education?

A. We sponsor the research projects of our students and young medical teachers. After acquiring enough exposure, they are involved in research projects funded by institutes and agencies other than AIIMS Bhopal.

Our research projects are a collaboration between modern medical sciences and traditional medicine. We are also collaborating with technical and management institutes too. We have 15 patents.

Q. According to central government data from December 2023, 87 of 305 faculty vacancies at AIIMS Bhopal. How is the institute addressing faculty shortage?

A. Shortage of medical faculty is a problem of all medical colleges, not just one AIIMS. Usually, faculty posts remain vacant in superspeciality courses. This happens because there is no reservation in admission for superspeciality courses. This means that most graduates are from the general category. But there is reservation in teaching posts for these courses. We do not get enough applications from reserved-category applicants and posts remain unfilled.

However, we re-employ retired medical teachers and hire teachers on contractual basis for one year. We try to address the faculty crunch issue through local resources. We also advertise to fill teaching posts in mission mode.

Q. What is AIIMS Bhopal doing to stop ragging and address suicides and dropout of medical students?

A. We have a mentor-mentee system under which PG medical students mentor UG students and faculty members mentor PG students.

We have liaisoning officers to address the problems of reserved category students. We have wellness centers in the hostels.

We are following UGC and NMC norms to stop ragging. We have not received any complaints of ragging this year. We took strong actions on two ragging complaints last year.

Also read MBBS students are battling despair and depression in medical colleges

Q. Are there plans for expansion?

A. AIIMS Bhopal is a rising star in the field of medical education. We do complete 360 degree development of the student.

Our plans for medical education includes an increase of MBBS seats to 130 from 125, improving existing facilities in classrooms and hostels.