Is there severe faculty shortage at AIIMS? Vacancies draw concern
Faculty shortage
New Delhi: Is there a severe faculty shortage at AIIMS- the matter was recently taken up in the Parliament. As per the Union Health ministry, nearly 7 All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are grappling with a worsening faculty crisis for more than a year, with vacancies continuing to rise.
Fully operational All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) across India are seeing a faculty vacancy, including 34% in AIIMS New Delhi, 24% in AIIMS Bhopal, 25% in AIIMS Bhubaneswar, 28% in AIIMS Jodhpur, 38% in AIIMS Raipur, 27% in AIIMS Patna, and 39% in AIIMS Rishikesh. Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda in his statement said that there were faculty shortages at 12 cities where institutions such as the AIIMS were partially operational, including 41% in Mangalagiri, 23% in Nagpur, and 39% in Kalyani.
According to the ministry's data presented in Parliament, significant shortages in faculty numbers have been observed particularly at AIIMS New Delhi, Jodhpur, and Rishikesh which have worsened over the past 18 months. The faculty crisis also persists across four “fully operational” AIIMS—Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Patna, and Raipur.
In response to a question from Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Sanjeev Arora, the ministry shared the data revealing that faculty vacancies account between 23% and 38% of the sanctioned positions across seven "fully operational" AIIMS—New Delhi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, and Rishikesh.
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AIIMS New Delhi, the country’s premier medical institute, has seen its faculty vacancies rise from 20% in August 2023 to 34% now which is comparatively worse. Of the 1,235 sanctioned posts, 425 remain vacant now. In August 2023, 227 posts were vacant against the sanctioned 1,131 posts.
AIIMS Jodhpur, which had 81 vacancies last year, now has 85 out of 305 sanctioned posts while AIIMS Rishikesh is struggling with 141 (39 per cent) vacant positions of 355 posts compared to 105 (34 per cent) of 305 posts in 2023. AIIMS, Kalyani, has 100 vacant positions out of 259 sanctioned posts.
The faculty shortages in twelve cities with partially operational AIIMS-type institutions, listing vacancy percentages as high as 59.5% in Rajkot and 54% in Bilaspur.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, in its response, had stated that creation and recruitment is a "continuous Process".
The response states, "In order to expeditiously fill vacant sanctioned positions in various AIIMS, steps have been taken by the Government."
These include conducting the Centralized Nursing Officer Recruitment Common Eligibility Test (NORCET), the Common Recruitment Examination (CRE) for Group B and C non-faculty positions, and the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INI-CET) and Super Speciality (INI-SS) exams to recruit Junior and Senior Residents across AIIMS.
The issue of faculty shortages comes at a time when the government has promised a major expansion in medical education. Medical Dialogues recently reported the country will get 10,000 medical seats in the coming year and 75,000 seats in the next five years. The Central Government plans to take steps to further expand the medical education sector by adding more medical seats to the country's seat matrix, announced Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman while presenting the Union Budget 2025.
In her budget speech, the Minister announced that the Government will include 75,000 new undergraduate medical seats in the next five years while noting that nearly 1.1 lakh undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats have already been added over the past 10 years, which is an increase of 130%. "Ten thousand additional seats will be added to medical colleges next year, and 75,000 seats will be added in the next five years," announced the Minister.
However, medical professionals worry that without adequate faculty, this expansion could compromise the quality of medical education.
Meanwhile, the ministry's data revealed that non-faculty vacancies are also a growing concern across all AIIMS. AIIMS, New Delhi, for instance currently has 2,242 vacancies against 14,300 sanctioned non-faculty positions. AIIMS, Kalyani, has 615 vacancies against 1,527 sanctioned non-faculty positions.
The ministry told Parliament that the creation of posts and recruitment is a continuous process and several steps, including centralised recruitment of nursing officers and common recruitment exams for junior residents and senior residents, have been taken to “expeditiously fill” the sanctioned positions.
Recently, Congress MP Jairam Ramesh raised alarm over the reported significant faculty shortages at AIIMS institutions across India, pointing out that the vacancies were "staggering."
In a post on social media platform X, Ramesh highlighted the figures revealed in the Rajya Sabha session. "Yesterday, an answer to a question asked in the Rajya Sabha of the Minister of Health & Family Welfare revealed a most disturbing statistic relating to the seven fully operational AIIMS institutions in the country," Ramesh said, listing the vacancy rates for AIIMS New Delhi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Raipur, Patna, and Rishikesh, all ranging from 24% to 39%.
He wrote, "Quality of faculty apart - although questions have been raised about it - the extent of vacancies in faculty positions is staggering. What is most surprising is the position in the most prestigious AIIMS New Delhi itself, which in many ways is the mother institution. The health minister must give this the highest priority without diluting standards."
