The idea of AIIMS arose in 1946, after a recommendation by the Health Survey of the Government of India. From then to the establishment and development of AIIMS (New Delhi) over the ensuing years, several illustrious individuals played their part in bringing the idea to fruition. Originally proposed by the then Prime Minister of India
Jawaharlal Nehru for establishment in
Calcutta, it was established in New Delhi following the refusal of Chief Minister of West Bengal
Bidhan Chandra Roy.[3] The foundation stone of AIIMS Delhi was laid in 1952.[4]
On February 18, 1956, the then Minister of Health,
Rajkumari Amrit Kaur, introduced a new bill in the
Lok Sabha, that would eventually become the AIIMS Act. "It has been one of my cherished dreams that for post graduate study and for the maintenance of high standards of medical education in our country, we should have an institute of this nature which would enable our young men and women to have their post graduate education in their own country," she said.[5] The old and new main OPD blocks at AIIMS, New Delhi are named after her. When the bill was adopted in May 1956, it became the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act, 1956.[4]
Campuses
The whole campus is spread over an area of 213.12 acres.
Main campus
AIIMS, New Delhi's main campus is located in Ansari Nagar in
Delhi. It is adjacent to the South Extension-II market and lies on both sides of the Sir Aurobindo Marg, southwards to the AIIMS Roundabout flyover crossing.
AIIMS, New Delhi's main campus is divided into five smaller campuses:
East Campus – Containing OPD Block, Main Hospital Block, Ward Block, Medical College, Research Section, Convergence Block,
BB Dixit Library, Administrative Wing, Undergraduates Hostels, Central Lawn, Jawaharlal Auditorium and staff quarters. The 4 Specialty Centers for Cardiothoracic + Neurosciences, Cancer Center, Center for Ophthalmic Sciences and Center for Dental Education and Research are also within this East Campus.
West Campus – It comprises mainly staff quarters and residences.
JPNA Trauma Center – It is exclusively designated for Emergency services. In June 2018, a tunnel and ramp road link between the east campus and JPNA Trauma Center Campus was also opened. This link route is very useful in fast transferring of critical patients across the two Campuses. Beside JPNA Trauma Center, new 100 Bed Plastic and Burns Surgical Unit Hospital is also running, it will also comprise a Skin Bank for Burns Injuries.
Masjid Moth Campus – This site contains new Post-Graduate and Resident Doctor's apartments. Underground parking block is also situated here. Upcoming New OPD Block, Mother and Child Care Unit, Surgical Block and Geriatric Block are also under construction here. These new blocks are aimed to reduce the patient load on the present OPD block in East Campus which is currently overhauled by nearly approx. 10,000 out-patients per day.
Ayurvigyan Nagar Campus – It is too for faculty and staff's residential accommodations.
Extension campuses of AIIMS New Delhi Jhajjar-AIIMS-II
The second campus of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS-II), spread over 330 acres (1.335 square kilometres) of land was visualized during the period of Prof. Tirath Das Dogra as Director AIIMS Delhi and Anbumani Ramadoss (President, AIIMS), Minister of Health and Family welfare union of India in 2009 at Bhadsha village [also spelled Badsa] in Haryana's Jhajjar district.
AIIMS-II was thought to be developed as the largest medical Education centre for super-specialities in the world to meet the enormous need of super-specialists in various field in India. The 330 acres of land was donated by the then Chief Minister
Bhupinder Singh Hooda, of Haryana to
Anbumani Ramadoss, in presence of Director AIIMS
Tirath Das Dogra, in a big public function on 28 February 2009 at the proposed site.[6] The National Cancer Institute is first to come up, next is the National Cardiovascular centre as a joint venture between Govt of Haryana and Union health ministry in a series of future developments as envisaged.[7] The next under the plan is a unique collaborative centre between
IITD-Jhajjar campus located adjacent to the AIIMS (New Delhi)'s Jhajjar Extension. They jointly are to set up a "biomedical research park", running joint PhD/research programmes managed through the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT).[8]
National Cancer Institute (NCI) and upcoming National Heart Institute
The 710 bedded National Cancer Institute of India and Infectious and Community Diseases Centre at AIIMS (New Delhi)'s Jhajjar Extension Campus is constructed at a cost of ₹2,034 crores on 32 acres along the lines of
National Cancer Institute of the USA[9] and it is focused on treatment and research on the India-specific cancer.[10]
It became operational on 18 December 2018 including OPD, lab and 250-bed hospital which will be expanded to 710 beds by December 2019.[11] It is headed by Dr. G.K. Rath former Head of Department of Oncology at AIIMS (New Delhi).[11] National Heart Institute (India) is also being established here.[12] A heliport is being developed here in January 2019 for the
Air Ambulance to serve emergency patients from remote areas.[13]
Ballabhgarh Extension campus
Ballabhgarh, established in 1965, is an extension campus of AIIMS in
Ballabhgarh city of
Faridabad district in
Haryana.[14] This rural field practice OPD[clarification needed] campus was set up in collaboration with
Government of Haryana as "Comprehensive Rural Health Services Project" – "Ballabgarh Health and Demographic Surveillance System".[15][16] In 1961 Rural Field Practice was established at AIIMS (New Delhi) with the help of
Rockefeller Foundation. In 1965, the Comprehensive Rural Health Services Project was set up at Ballabgarh with a 50-bed hospital, 24 hr emergency and obstetric facilities, outpatient services in medicine, surgery, pediatrics, gynaecology and obstetrics, eye, otorhinolaryngology, psychiatry, physical medicine and rehabilitation, pediatric surgery, dental care, homeopathy, NCD[clarification needed] clinic, ANC (Antenatal Checkup) clinic, immunization clinic, laboratory, radiological and ultra-sonography services.[14][17][18][19]
Ghaziabad Extension campus
An intensive field practice area, the National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre[20] is an extension campus of AIIMS (New Delhi) in
Ghaziabad city of
Uttar Pradesh.[19]
The Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, AIIMS was established in the year 1988 and was functional in New Delhi. In 2003 it was upgraded as a National Centre (National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre) and is fully operational from its new premises in Ghaziabad, Delhi-NCR since April 2003.
NDDTC has been established as the apex centre for treatment of drugs and substance abuse disorders in the country. It provides a state of art model for de‐addiction treatments. This centre has full range of specialists and facilities. The NDDTC is situated on 10 acre beautiful campus. It is presently having 50 bedded treatment facilities
PhD Programme in the area of Addiction Psychiatry and DM (Addiction Psychiatry) Programme started since year 2012 and 2015 respectively.
The Ex-Chief of the centre was a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB), a monitoring body under the United Nations.
NDDTC has been designated as a WHO Collaborating Centre on Substance Abuse (2012–2020)
AIIMS (New Delhi) Campus Redevelopment Master plan 2019
In February 2019 The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister of India has given 'in principle' approval to the Implementation of Master Plan to convert All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi into a world class Medical University.[21]
The visualization at the time of institute's construction (in 1950s) was for a limited number of patients. The medical institute was established as a tertiary-care centre, but now it has turned into a primary care centre. Over time, the requirement has increased manifold. The upcoming master plan will now have a vision for the next decade.
The Master Plan envisages freeing up adequate space through redevelopment, vertical expansion and reorganizing the land usage, thus optimizing the infrastructure of the Institute for the next 20 years.
It is proposed to re-develop the infrastructure of AIIMS, New Delhi by consolidating the Patient Care, Teaching, Research, Administration and support services in areas in the East Ansari Nagar (Main) Campus and residential facilities from East Ansari Nagar (Main Campus) to Trauma Centre Extension (New Rajnagar) Campus.
Benefits:
The project would provide highly specialized state-of-the-art healthcare to the patients and an integrated 'One Campus' answer to all the investigative, physiotherapeutic, operative, rehabilitative and vocational needs of the patients. It would ensure smart mobility and accessibility for the patients and become an apex tertiary care centre for advancement of research, clinical applications and management of patients.
Works expected as per the Redevelopment Master plan
By 2024, AIIMS (New Delhi) will add around 3,000 more beds to its existing strength of 2,478 beds. So there will be a facility of approximately 5,500 beds in service by then.[22]
A move that will come as a relief for thousands of patients who visit the hospital every day as presently the hospital sees a daily footfall of almost 15,000 patients and their attendants. It also aims to strengthen patient-care services and residential facilities for faculty members and staff.
Officials said the estimated cost of executing the master plan is around ₹10,345 crore, including ₹1,000 crore for hiring manpower. The project will be completed in two phases; while Phase 1 will be completed in 46 months, the second phase will be finalized in 70 months. As per the plan, a convention centre, a guesthouse with 40 rooms, a hostel with more than 4,500 rooms and 500 residential units with allied car parking will be set up.
As there is no scope of further expansion with the limited availability of land, residential facilities stretching from Trauma Centre campus, West Campus (Ansari Nagar) to East Campus (Ansari Nagar) and Ayurvigyan Nagar Campus will be relocated. This will free up space in the main campus and allow to expand vertically.[23]
With senior faculty members raising issues of shortage of labs and operation theaters in the institute, the administration hopes the upcoming project will look into that concern. This new plan will also create scope for research projects, which have been pending due to space constraints.
Healthcare
Medical facilities
Departments and Sub-Specialties at AIIMS (New Delhi)
Gastrointestinal Surgery and Liver Transplantation
28.
General Surgery and Minimal Access Surgery
29.
Geriatric Medicine
30.
Gynecological Oncology
31.
Head and Neck Surgical Oncology
32.
Hematology
33.
Hepatology
34.
Hospital Administration
35.
Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology
36.
Integrative Medicine and Research
37.
Laboratory Medicine
38.
Laboratory Oncology
39.
Medical Genetics
40.
Medical Oncology
41.
Medical Physics
42.
Medicine
43.
Microbiology
44.
Neonatology
45.
Nephrology
46.
Neuro-anaesthesiology and Critical Care
47.
Neuro Biochemistry
48.
Neurology
49.
Neuro Pathology
50.
Neuro Psychology
51.
Neuro-imaging & Interventional Neuroradiology
52.
Neurosurgery
53.
Nuclear Magnetic Resonance
54.
Nuclear Medicine
55.
Nursing and Midwifery
56.
Obstetrics and Gynaecology
57.
Ophthalmic Sciences
58.
Onco-anesthesiology & Palliative Medicine
59.
Oral & Maxillofacial Surgery
60.
Organ Retrieval & Stem Cell Sciences
61.
Organ Transplant and General Surgery
62.
Orthodontics
63.
Orthopaedics
64.
Otorhinolaryngology
68.
Pathology
65.
Pediatric Cardiology
66.
Pediatric Endocrinology
67.
Pediatric Medicine
69.
Pediatric Nephrology
70.
Pediatric Neurology
71.
Pediatric Neurosurgery
72.
Pediatric Oncology
73.
Pediatric Pulmonology & Intensive Care
74.
Pediatric Surgery
75.
Pedodontics & Preventive Dentistry
76.
Pharmacology
77.
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
78.
Physiology
79.
Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery
80.
Prosthodontics
81.
Psychiatry
82.
Pulmonary Medicine and Sleep Disorder
83.
Radio-diagnosis and Interventional Radiology
84
Radio-therapy
85.
Reproductive Biology
86.
Rheumatology
87.
Surgical Oncology
88.
Transfusion Medicine and Blood Bank
89.
Transplant Immunology and Immunogenetics
90
Trauma Surgery and Critical Care
91.
Urology
Clinical statistics for session 2017–2018
Hospital Services at AIIMS (2017–18) ( source: 62nd Annual-Report[24])
Hospital/Centre
Outpatients
(including casualty)
Inpatients
(patients admitted)
Surgeries
(operations/procedures)
Beds
General
Private
TOTAL
Main Hospital
20,88,171
1,15,276
96,439
997
165
1,162
Cardiothoracic Centre
2,02,555
12,331
4,141
226
33
464
Neurosciences Centre
1,36,300
9,414
3,314
174
31
Dr. RP Centre(Ophthalmic Centre)
5,75,174
43,684
45,411
288
22
310
JPNA Trauma Centre
1,23,845
6,910
8,142
232
11
243
Dr. BRA-IRCH(Cancer Centre)
1,71,778
42,687
10,329
167
15
182
CCM(Centre for Community Medicine)
5,48,236
12,685
2,340
50
- - - -
50
NDDTC(National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre)
1,64,642
1,201
- - - -
50
- - - -
50
CDER(Dental Centre)
2,09,045
1,377
22,918
17
- - - -
17
Outreach patients(Badsha, Jhajjar, Haryana)
1,33,171
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
- - - -
TOTAL:
43,55,338
(43.5 lakhs+)
2,45,565
(2.4 lakhs+)
1,93,034
(1.9 lakhs+)
2,201
227
2,478beds
Specialty centres
Dr. Rajendra Prasad Centre for Ophthalmic Sciences: Establisted in 1967 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it is a 310-bed ophthalmic (eyes) specialty centre.[25]
Dr. BR Ambedkar Institute Rotary Cancer Hospital: It specialises in the treatment of cancer and hosts departments viz. surgical, medical and radiation oncology. Total beds are 182.
Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre: It is India's first full-fledged centre to treat victims of trauma. It is located about 1 km west of the main campus.[26] It has a bed strength of 243.
Centre for Dental Education and Research: Located adjacent to the Hostels, is AIIMS' newest specialty centre. The centre commenced a 4-year collaboration with WHO for oral health promotion. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India designated this centre as National Centre for Excellence for implementation of National Oral Health Programme in the country. This centre provides technical support on oral health to the government and WHO. Despite having very few faculty members, this centre has been giving best research output per person in the country. It contains 17 beds.
Cardiothoracic and Neurosciences Centre: Offers superspecialty patient care, training and research in the respective fields. Containing totally 464 beds.
National Drug Dependence Treatment Centre, Ghaziabad: It is a WHO collaborating centre on substance abuse containing 50 beds.[27]
Centre for Community Medicine, Ballabhgarh: It maintains a teaching and treatment facility at Ballabgarh, which is a periurban area outside Delhi, it also provides comprehensive services to 84000 population. Faculty members from AIIMS (New Delhi) are posted there by rotation. It contains 50 beds.
Academics
Admissions
AIIMS (New Delhi) was originally established as a super-specialty tertiary care centre with primary emphasis on research and specialized training facilities.
MBBS is the basic medical course at bachelor's degree level. This is followed by master's degree level specialisation in general surgery, general medicine, pediatrics and other fields. Superspecialties are those healthcare fields whose practitioners need specialised certification after completing their postgraduation, examples being cardiothoracic and vascular surgery, rheumatology, neurology, and pediatric neurology. There are at least 45 superspecialties at AIIMS (New Delhi) at
higher master's degree level. AIIMS also offers MSc and PhD level research courses.
There are about forty-two specialty post-graduate courses conducted at AIIMS (New Delhi). The entry is through a nationwide competitive examination, INI-CET, held every six months.[28] Each year nearly 50 thousand medical graduates and 25 thousand dental graduates across the country compete for the limited number of positions, approximately <1% of the candidates are admitted through the process.
Government has said that from 2020 session onwards, all such undergraduate admissions would be taken up only through a single national level examination
NEET-UG conducted by
NTA (National Testing Agency).
Many field experts however criticized this exam unification, specifically with respect to AIIMS (New Delhi), citing the reason that the level of questions in AIIMS-UG entrance exams (for both MBBS & BSc Nursing courses separately) used to be of such a higher & deep logical-conceptual thinking capabilities, that they eventually served a greater advantage for selecting the most desirable students for such scientific courses. And that was something really crucial for the main objectives for which AIIMS (New Delhi) was established, which are cutting-edge research, medical innovations and to demonstrate high standards of medical education to all medical colleges and allied institutions in India.
AIIMS is the first Indian medical center to perform a successful cardiac transplant. The surgery was performed by
P Venugopal, the ex-director of AIIMS, in 1994.[33]
AIIMS is an advanced center of stem cell therapy in India, especially cardiac and neurological. It holds a reputation of being a pioneer in stem cell injection.[34][35][36]
AIIMS has India's first and only minimally invasive surgery training center, under collaboration with Germany.[37]
The first in-vitro fertilization facility in the public sector was set up at AIIMS, New Delhi in February 2008.[38]
International rankings
AIIMS New Delhi was ranked 204th in the world and first in
South Asia in the category of Life Sciences and Medicine by
QS WUR in 2022.[39] The institute was also featured in the World's Best Hospitals 2020 – Top 100 by
Newsweek.[40] It was ranked 22nd in the world by
Ceoworld Magazine.[41]
Kayakalp Award (Cleanest Medical Facility) for 3 consecutive years 2017, 2018 and 2019: First Prize for maintaining cleanliness within the institute's premises.[42][43]
Controversies
Scams and whistleblower case
On 29 June 2012,
IFoS officer
Sanjiv Chaturvedi was made Deputy Secretary of AIIMS (New Delhi). He was also given the charge of Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS. As the CVO, Chaturvedi took action in a large number of corruption cases involving:[44][45][46][47]
Selling of counterfeit medicines at a private on-campus pharmacy owned by an MLA
Corruption in recruitment
Purchase of medical equipments & consumables
Financial irregularities in ₹3850 crore construction projects and tenure extension of then Head of Engineering-Wing supervising these projects
Unauthorized foreign trips by doctors
Single bid tendering
Corruption in computerization purchases
Treatment of officers' pet dog at institute
Matters of subletting
Pension fund scam
Sexual harassment
Serious violations by security contractor firms[48]
Chaturvedi initiated actions in around 200 corruption cases during his stint as AIIMS CVO; punishment was imposed in 78 cases, chargesheet was issued in 87 cases and more than 20 cases were referred to CBI for criminal investigation. These cases included the ones against senior IAS officer Vineet Chawdhry, of Himachal Pradesh cadre, who had worked earlier as Deputy. Director (Administration), former deputy director (Administration) Shailesh Yadav, a senior IPS officer, many senior faculty members, former Registrar V.P. Gupta and former Chief Administrative Officer Attar Singh.[46]
CBI inquiries and further results
Subsequently, on many investigations done by Chaturvedi, CBI registered cases and recommended action against Vineet Chawdhry. As per India Today investigative report of June 2017, J P Nadda, Union Health Minister was found to have hushed up investigation into what the report termed as 7000 crore scam, detailing CBI report and scathing reports of Parliamentary Committee.[49] Opposition parties on basis of this investigative report and documents mentioned in the report, accused Nadda of links with senior IAS officer Vineet Chawdhry who had earlier worked with Nadda in Himachal Pradesh[50]
Earlier in September 2013, CBI had registered a criminal case on basis of enquiry done by Vigilance Cell of AIIMS, regarding large scale fake payments made in security wing of AIIMS and financial irregularities into security contract award to a private company.[45]
In October 2015, CBI, on basis of enquiry done by Chaturvedi, found then AIIMS Director, Dr. M C Mishra, and certain other AIIMS officials including store officer guilty of involvement in corruption in purchase of medical items including disinfectants in trauma centre, on basis of wrong propriety certificate and recommended action against them to Health Ministry, as deemed fit.[51][52]
Again, in January 2018 CBI registered criminal case under sections of forgery and Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988 against certain AIIMS officials for corruption in purchase in Surgery Department, to favour particular firms, on basis of enquiry report sent by Chaturvedi as CVO to CBI in May 2014.[53]
However, it was found later on that all the major corruption cases exposed and being investigated by CVO Chaturvedi, involving senior IAS, IPS officers, AIIMS Director and senior AIIMS officials were being hushed up after Chaturvedi's removal and taking over of Health Ministry by J P Nadda.[54][55]
In August 2014, Chaturvedi was relieved from the charge of CVO.[56]
On 16 August, he wrote a letter to the new health minister
Harsh Vardhan, alleging that his removal from the CVO post was a result of campaign by corrupt officials. He was supported by AIIMS staff, who wrote a letter to the Prime Minister asking for his reinstatement. The
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) held protests in his support
Around year 2002 AIIMS decision to reserving 33% of post-graduation seats as institutional preference seats for its own undergraduate MBBS students, resulted in a controversy as it practically resulted in a 100% reservation for subjects, was struck down by the Supreme Court of India.[57] In 2006 Union Health Minister
Anbumani Ramadoss, who was a supporter of 27% reservation for
Other Backward Classes,[58] caused a controversy when he replaced
P. Venugopal with
T. D. Dogra as Director of AIIMS (New Delhi). The initial personality conflict between Ramadoss and Venugopal later become politicised as a conflict on reservation issue,[59] as anti-reservation students and faculty of AIIMS (New Delhi) went on strike in favor of Venugopal.[60] The issue was put to rest when Venugopal was reinstated by the Supreme Court.[61]
AIIMS server attack
On 23 November 2022, servers of AIIMS New Delhi were hacked by a
ransomware attack after an employee opened a
phishing mail. The hackers have encrypted the servers and were demanding ₹200 crores in cryptocurrency, however Delhi Police did not confirmed reports of ransom demand.[62] Patient care services in emergency, outpatient, inpatient and laboratory wings were forced to be managed manually. Investigation has confirmed that five main servers were targeted by Chinese hackers based out of Hong Kong.[63][64]Delhi Police, Representatives of
Ministry of Home Affairs,
Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN),
Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) and
National Informatics Centre (NIC) are investigating the ransomware attack. A case of extortion and cyber terrorism was registered by the Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations (IFSO) unit of the Delhi Police on November 25.[65] The online registration of new patients visiting the OPD at the AIIMS resumed on 6 December 2022 while online OPD booking system was restored by 2nd week of December 2022.[66][67]
^Venugopal, P. (1 September 1994). "The first successful heart transplant in India". The National Medical Journal of India. 7 (5): 213–215.
PMID7827600.
^"NASI fellow nomination"(PDF). National Academy of Sciences, India. 3 February 2018. Archived from
the original(PDF) on 20 October 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2018.