88 per cent bed occupancy at AIIMS Raipur despite single MRI machine: RTI
Raipur- According to official RTI disclosures, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Raipur, operated at an 88 per cent Bed Occupancy Rate (BOR) during 2025-26, highlighting the growing operational pressure on the premier government healthcare institution.
During the period, AIIMS Raipur managed over 10.25 lakh OPD patients, more than 58,000 emergency and trauma cases, and a rapidly increasing surgical workload, despite possessing only a single MRI machine with a waiting period extending up to four months.
The occupancy figures released by AIIMS Raipur exceed the benchmark of approximately 80 percent utilization associated with Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) and the institutional norms governing major hospitals and teaching institutions affiliated with the National Medical Commission (NMC).
The NMC's own regulatory amendments of 2020 stipulate a minimum indoor bed occupancy of 75 per cent for teaching hospitals at the stage of the third renewal and recognition. Furthermore, this figure surpasses the internationally recognised efficiency threshold, beyond which hospitals lose their residual capacity to absorb growth, face pressures such as overcrowded corridors and ambulance diversions, and become critically vulnerable to congestion in emergency wards during sudden surges in patient volume.
According to The Hitavada media report, these revelations have emerged from RTI application number AMSRP/R/E/26/00082, filed by Nagpur-based RTI activist Sanjay Thul. This includes the response provided by AIIMS Raipur's CPIO, Shivendra Singh, as well as information regarding internal medical records dated May 12, 2026. The RTI documents reveal that the number of patients visiting the OPD at AIIMS Raipur increased from 838,873 in 2023–24 to 1,025,823 in 2025-26.
RTI records also reveal that the surgical workload is continuously increasing. One of the most significant pieces of information to emerge from the RTI response is that currently, only one MRI machine is functional at AIIMS Raipur.
The RTI response does not disclose whether any expansion of MRI infrastructure has been approved, proposed, or is currently underway, despite the increasing clinical workload recorded in the institute's own records.
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