The All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, is mulling to commence B.Sc paramedical academic courses in three disciplines and one-year post doctor certificate courses (PDCC) in 12 other disciplines from the session beginning July this year.
The B.Sc courses have been planned in operation theatre and anaesthesiology, medical technology in radiography and medical laboratory technology, said Dr Prabhat Kumar Singh, director, AIIMS-Patna.
“We will place our proposal to introduce the three B.Sc courses as well as PDCC courses before our standing academic committee this month. We have done some ground work and have five months’ time before we commence admission in these courses,” said Dr Singh.
These are demand-driven courses and will help generate skilled manpower for operation theatre, radiology and medical laboratory, said Dr Umesh Bhadani, dean, AIIMS-Patna.
The B.Sc course will be of three-and-a-half years and the PDCC of one year.
“We have got an approval in principle from our director for introducing these courses. We are looking at an annual intake of 16-20 students in each of the three disciplines for the B.Sc courses,” added Dr Bhadani.
The institute is working on the syllabus for these courses, preparing teaching-learning methodology and framing rules to govern the course and for assessment of students, said Dr Amit Patil, sub-dean postgraduate affairs and member-secretary of undergraduate curriculum committee at AIIMS-Patna.
The institute offers B.Sc nursing course, with an annual intake of 70 students. It also introduced M.Sc nursing course last August, with four seats each in community health nursing, psychiatry nursing and paediatric nursing.
Besides, AIIMS-Delhi, its institutes at Jodhpur, Bhopal and Raipur already have B.Sc paramedical academic courses.
“Our preparation may have taken some time, but I wanted to introduce the B.Sc and PDCC courses after proper ground work. There also has to be a demand from the institute to have these courses. We lost one full year due to the coronavirus pandemic, else we may have introduced these courses last year itself,” said director Singh.
OT to begin at AIIMS from Jan 11
The AIIMS-Patna will resume operation theatre services at the institute from January 11, said its director Dr Prabhat Kumar Singh. Trauma and emergency services will, however, remain suspended, as the institute continues to cater to Covid-19 patients.
“We do not have as much manpower to manage everything along with Covid-19 patients. We do not wish to compromise on our quality of treatment, as a result emergency and trauma services will remain suspended for the time being,” said Dr Singh.
The institute had stopped outdoor patient department (OPD) consultation and surgeries after the state government declared the institute a dedicated Covid-19 hospital on July 10. The state also subsequently nominated it as a centre of excellence for Covid-19 for liasoning with AIIMS-Delhi and training state’s medical professionals in the management of Covid-19.
Meanwhile, resident doctors of AIIMS have demanded one-month salary as incentive, which the Bihar government had announced for its doctors.