All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi

Despite being in the eye of numerous storms over the past half century, AIIMS has served as a laboratory to develop brilliant minds in undergraduate and postgrad medical studies

Despite regularly being in the news for the wrong reasons (epicentre of student anti-reservations stir, forced resignation of director etc), the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, is the premier institute of medical education and research in south Asia. Consistently ranked as India’s most preferred medical college in India Today rankings of the country’s top institutions of higher education, AIIMS was the brainchild of newly independent India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Union health minister, Rajkumari Amrit Kaur. Over the past half century it has served as a laboratory to develop brilliant minds in undergraduate and postgrad medical studies.  

The idea of AIIMS was incubated by a pre-independence era committee chaired by distinguished civil servant Sir Joseph Bhore, which recommended the establishment of a national medical teaching university to produce highly qualified manpower for the nation’s exponentially growing healthcare sector. The dreams of Nehru, Amrit Kaur and the Bhore Committee’s recommendations coalesced to promote AIIMS. Backed by a grant of US $ 1 million from the New Zealand government, AIIMS was registered in 1952. Subsequently it was formally established as an autonomous institution through the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act, 1956.

Today AIIMS discharges three major roles: it delivers qualitative undergrad and postgraduate education in medicine, nursing and allied health fields at rock-bottom prices; serves as a state-of-the-art referral hospital for affordable medical and surgical care; and conducts advanced research in the health and biological sciences. To fulfill these objectives, over the past five decades AIIMS has developed comprehensive facilities for teaching, research and patient care. As provided in its promotional legislation, the institute also offers a raft of undergraduate programmes in medicine, nursing and related areas and postgraduate courses in all basic and clinical medical specialties and super specialties. The institute awards its own degrees and admission into its medical courses is based on stringent pan-India entrance exams (see box).

Teaching and research at AIIMS are conducted in 42 disciplines by the institute’s 475 strong faculty supported by 6,614 non-teaching/ research personnel. On average, about 250 graduate and 470 postgraduate medical practitioners emerge from AIIMS’ portals annually. The institute has also established a reputation in the field of medical research and publishes about 800 papers by its faculty and research associates annually.

“It is our constant endeavour to set internationally benchmarked academic standards at AIIMS. Our rigorous admission process admits only 50 students per year out of 100,000 who apply from all over India, ensuring that only the very best brains are admitted. Our teacher-student ratio of 1:10 is excellent and on a par with international norms. Moreover we have a frequent system of assessment which thoroughly tests the knowledge of students through the year. Academically our emphasis is as much on research as on hands-on training so that our students are equipped to handle all types of emergency situations. Our medical curriculum is revised and updated every 18 months and sets a template for other medical colleges countrywide,” says Dr. Sunil Chembur deputy dean of AIIMS.

Yet perhaps the unique selling proposition of AIIMS is that in effect it is a giant laboratory providing almost unlimited experiential opportunities to students. Little wonder AIIMS graduates are prized round the world. Astonishingly, the 50 students fortunate to be admitted into India’s leading medical school are required to pay a nominal tuition fee of a mere Rs.250 per year or Rs.20 per month. Even this derisory tuition fee — made possible by a Central government grant of Rs.400 crore per year — is payable in two installments. “Our tuition fees have been deliberately kept low so that meritorious students from economically weaker sections don’t feel inhibited about seeking admission,” says Chembur.

AIIMS’ well-stocked library houses 61,423 volumes, 53,547 reference journals and 14,008 biomedical reports. It subscribes to 490 journals and 80 newsletters and is wired with computers, a microfilm library reader and a reader-printer facility. The institute also runs a college of nursing and trains students for a B.Sc (Hons) programme in nursing with about 850 nursing students graduating from AIIMS annually. Twenty-five clinical departments — including four super specialty centres — treat all types of affilictions and ailments with support from pre- and para-clinical departments.

The staggering number of services provided by AIIMS is testified by the 1.5 million patients doctors of the institute treat in its outpatient departments (OPD) every year. Another 80,000 are treated as inpatients and a mind-boggling 100,000 major and minor surgeries are performed every year at the hospital.

According to Chembur, AIIMS is currently focussing on upgrading its curriculum to meet international norms. Also, since the retention of young doctors has become a problem — lured as they are by better-paying private hospitals — AIIMS is trying to improve its salary packages, provide better work conditions etc. “Research will assume paramount importance and some tie-ups with foreign universities are also planned. Ultimately, we have to focus on upgradation and consolidation if we have to retain our slot as one of the world’s foremost medical colleges,” he says.

Neeta Lal (Delhi)