AIIMS, PGI doctors'
retirement age raised to 62
Tribune
News Service
NEW DELHI, Dec 19
The Centre today decided to raise the retirement age of
doctors working in All India Institute of Medical
Sciences (AIIMS) here and Post Graduate Institute for
Medical Education and Research (PGI) in Chandigarh from
60 to 62 years, official sources said.
About 450 doctors from
AIIMS and 325 doctors from PGI are expected to benefit
from the governments decision.
Only doctors working in
these two autonomous institutes under the Ministry of
Health have been given this benefit even though there are
several such institutions under the ministry, the sources
added.
The Director of AIIMS, Dr
P K Dave, when informed about the governments
decision, said "the move does not surprise me."
Welcoming the decision, he
said "the retirement age of teaching faculty in the
Indian Institute of Technology and other research
institutions have been increased to 62 years by the
University Grants Commission."
The expertise gained by
the doctors over the years can be now disseminated to the
upcoming persons in the medical profession for two more
years, the AIIMS director said.
The general secretary of
the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Dr Prem Aggarwal,
while welcoming the decision, said "the
governments move should confine to only research
institutions."
"Doctors in research
institutions impart knowledge and an increase in their
retirement age would only benefit the medical
fraternity," he said.
Dr Aggarwal said the
government should not expand the decision to those
doctors serving in other government hospitals as there
are number of qualified doctors who are unemployed.
Another doctor associated
with the IMA, Dr Ashwani K Malhotra, said the government
should consider employing senior doctors more as
consultants. "This would not only increase the
employment opportunity of upcoming doctors but also help
them to learn from those who have the experience,"
he added.
CHANDIGARH (TNS): The
extension in the retirement age of faculty members of PGI
from 60 year to 62 years is expected to give some respite
to the PGI that is already short on staff. At least five
senior professors who were scheduled to retire within the
coming two years will now stay on.
This year seven senior
professors retired leaving a big vacuum at the top. The
PGI Director, Prof BK Sharma said: "The old lot will
now stay on and this will help us as there has been no
recruitment in the PGI for long". Among those who
were to retire in the coming months is Prof AK Banerjee.
In the next 18 months or so Prof RJ Dash, Prof S.K.
Sharma , Prof Subhash Gupta and Prof SK Kataria, would
have followed suit.
Among those lost out by a
whisker were Prof VK Kak, Prof RC Mahajan, Prof SD
Deodhar, Prof RK Suri , Prof S.K. Mitra , Prof Sobha
Sehgal and Prof Amrit Tewari. Almost all of them are
world renowned experts in their respective areas of
medicine and surgery.
The PGI authorities had
moved papers for the seven for temporary extensions
subject to an extension in the retirement age, however,
the Union Health Ministry had declined to do so. The
retirement age of administrative employees of the PGI was
extended some weeks ago.
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