477 PG medicos quit courses midway at AIIMS, JIPMER in last 3 years: RTI

New Delhi: In the last three years, a total of 477 students admitted to various postgraduate and super-speciality medical courses at 10 of the country’s most prestigious medical schools have left their courses midway, revealed data obtained through multiple Right to Information queries.

The data in this regard was obtained by a doctors' body- the United Doctors Front (UDF) from nine All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, including AIIMS Delhi and Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) Puducherry. The data showed that out of a total of 3130 students who joined the PG medical and super-speciality courses at these institutes, altogether 477 students quit the courses midway.

Among these institutes, JIPMER Puducherry witnessed one of the highest rates of dropouts. Out of the 387 students who joined the institute in 2024 and 2025, a total of 104 students left, which is around 27%. In the case of AIIMS Gorakhpur, a total of 33 out of 106 students left the institute. Here, the rate of dropout is around 31%.

The details of how many students joined and left these institutes are as follows:

(1) AIIMS Delhi

Commenting on the matter, UDF Chairperson Dr. Lakshya Mittal told Medical Dialogues, "India’s premier medical institutions are facing a deeply concerning challenge. RTI responses obtained from multiple AIIMS institutions, PGIMER and other central medical institutions reveal instances of postgraduate doctors leaving their courses, despite having secured highly competitive ranks and earning admission to some of the country’s most prestigious medical institutions."

"Just pause and think about it. A doctor studies for years, secures a coveted NEET-PG rank, gets admission to a premier institution after immense hard work, and then decides to quit. Why? What is driving these young doctors away from institutions they worked so hard to enter? We are repeatedly receiving grievances concerning excessively long working hours, continuous duties extending beyond 36 hours, toxic workplace culture, mental harassment, inadequate support and an institutional environment that often fails to recognise resident doctors as human beings," he added.

Dr. Mittal highlighted that resident doctors are the backbone of every hospital as they shoulder enormous clinical responsibilities, ensure round-the-clock patient care and keep our healthcare institutions functioning.

"Yet, their own physical and mental well-being is frequently neglected. An even more disturbing mindset persists in certain institutions: ‘We went through this, so the next generation must go through it too.’ This culture of normalising suffering, humiliation and exploitation in the name of training must end. What previous generations may have endured cannot become a justification for subjecting future doctors to the same conditions. Residency is meant to train doctors, not break them. Discipline is not humiliation, dedication is not exploitation, and medical training must never come at the cost of human dignity," said Dr. Mittal.

"The government and regulatory authorities must urgently investigate the reasons behind these resignations, ensure effective implementation of residency working-hour regulations, establish independent grievance-redressal mechanisms and fix institutional accountability. If this continues, the day is not far when we may struggle to find young doctors willing to take up the scalpel and shoulder the immense responsibilities of our hospitals. We cannot afford to lose an entire generation of dedicated doctors to a toxic training environment. It is time to reform the system before the system drives away the very doctors it is supposed to train," he mentioned, further adding that UDF has already filed a PIL before the Supreme Court.

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