After the MSc Medicine Association (TMMA) filed a grievance with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) claiming that institutes like All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS) and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) are “destructing the careers of thousands of MSc Medical Postgraduates in the country”, AIIMS Delhi issued a response today, Wednesday, June 12, saying that it does not discriminate against MSc students.
For context, the said association had raised concerns regarding the alleged shifting of faculty of MSc Medical Postgraduate course to Faculty of Allied Health Sciences in several institutes like AIIMS Delhi, JIPMER and SRM Institute of Science and Technology.
MSc Medical Postgraduate course includes medical subjects such as Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Pharmacology, which offers an opportunity to work as faculty in these subjects in medical colleges. However, by pushing this under the Faculty of Allied Health Science, the students will not be hired as faculty and the course will lose its presence as a medical course.
Reacting to the response by AIIMS Delhi to the association’s complaint, Shashank Kambali, President, TMMA, said, “AIIMS and JIPMER are institutes of National Importance, influencing the decisions at other medical institutes as well. Because of what they are doing, the future of thousands of MSc graduates is at stake.”
The association is now planning to approach the new Union Health Minister JP Nadda regarding the issue.
The association had earlier written to the MoHFW on May 16, expressing that by allegedly shifting the MSc Medical Postgraduate course to Allied and Paramedical Health Sciences, the institutes are denying their rights to the MSc postgraduates.
“By slowly changing the course curriculum, diluting the objectives and by conducting courses under allied/paramedical faculties, the identity, reputation and credibility of MSc Medical Postgraduates who are trained under the Faculty of Modern Medicine, specifically for teaching at medical institutions, are under grave threat,” the association had written.
Following this, AIIMS Delhi replied, today, on June 12, “The MSc basic Sciences courses like Medical Anatomy, Medical Biochemistry, Medical Physiology, Medical Pharmacology etc are meant to create trained scientific cadres in the country. The Institute does not discriminate against MSc students.”
