Prime minister Manmohan Singh has given health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad one month to come up with radical measures to salvage the tattered reputation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
In a strongly-worded letter, the prime minister has asked the health minister to “expeditiously” examine the recommendations of the Valiathan Committee, set up to look into the functioning of AIIMS, and get back to him on the administrative and legislative changes required to reform the institution.
“The time has come for us to think about a radical reform of the institution so that it becomes not just a model for the establishment of similar institutions in the country but also achieves levels of excellence on a par with the best medical institutions in the world,” the letter states.
AIIMS was in the eye of the storm during the last term of the UPA government, primarily because of the war between then health minister Anbumani Ramadoss and former AIIMS director Dr P Venugopal. The institute was also the nerve centre of the anti-reservation stir a couple of years ago when AIIMS students took to the streets in protest against
Other Backward Castes (OBC) reservations in government-run medical colleges. The institute has also seen a flight of talent from its stables for better salaries and conditions abroad.
Sources said the Dr Valiathan Committee recommended greater autonomy to the institution to make it “immune” to political interference. The PM has urged Azad to take up the matter as a “priority task of the ministry of health”.
“I believe that we should have an ambitious vision of what this great institution should aspire to become. So, the agenda for reform should be far-reaching,” the letter states.
