FAIMA writes to AIIMS director over cancellation of INI-CET July open counselling

New Delhi, Sep 27 (IANS) The Federation of All India Medical Association on Tuesday wrote to the director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, over the cancellation of INI-CET July 2022 open counselling and asked to conduct the same citing huge number of seats which will remain vacant in major clinical departments.

"This sudden decision has come as a shock to the residents of the INIs who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out of the departments in the last six months. We also want to apprise you that this has led many first year junior residents to consider leaving the seat in our premier INIs and take up a seat in the ongoing NEET PG 2022 counselling so that they do not have to face the increased department workload on their own. If this happens, with the possibility of a fourth (Covid) wave in the next few months not completely ruled out, it may be catastrophic for our healthcare system," read the FAIMA letter addressed to AIIMS director.

The FAIMA said that those doctors who qualified the INICET PG entrance examination for July 2022 session were informed of the cancellation of open round of counselling for the current session through "NOTICE NO 136/2022" dated 19.09.2022 issued by AIIMS New Delhi.

It said that the decision has come as a shock to the residents of the Institute of National Importance (INI) who have been eagerly waiting for new residents to join the departments to replace the residents who have passed out in the last six months.

The FAIMA has written to the AIIMS director on behalf of residents working at various departments of INI of the country like AIIMS (New Delhi), JIPMER (Puducherry), NIMHANS (Bengaluru), PGIMER (Chandigarh), SCTIMST (Trivandrum) and 11 other AIIMS which are participating in the INI-CET 2022 counselling.

"We write to you sir, with the kind request to look into this matter urgently, as a huge number of seats are remaining vacant in major clinical departments and more than 50 per cent seats are vacant in multiple departments of various institutes. This will lead to an immense burden on the existing workforce, predominantly the junior residents who have already worked tremendously during the last three waves of the pandemic, to manage the regular clinical duties along with additional Covid duties," FAIMA said in the letter.