Nearly 40% Faculty Positions Lying Vacant In AIIMS: Health Ministry

Around 40% of faculty positions across the 20 operational All India Institutes of Medical Science (AIIMS) remain unfilled.

All India Institutes of Medical Science, Delhi (File Photo)

Source : PTI

Government data presented in Rajya Sabha revealed that around 40% of faculty positions across the 20 operational All India Institutes of Medical Science (AIIMS) remain unfilled. Out of a total of 5,742 sanctioned faculty posts, 2,252 are currently vacant. Specifically, six AIIMS are operating with a faculty deficit exceeding 50%. In India's premier medical college, AIIMS Delhi, nearly a third of the teaching positions, accounting for 29.5%, remain unfilled. Contrastingly, at AIIMS Madurai, nearly three-quarters of the teaching posts stand vacant. Union Minister of state for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar shared these details in parliament while responding to questions asked by Congress president and Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Rajya Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.

Across the 20 AIIMS institutions in India, there exist a total of 2,169 MBBS seats. However, with a substantial deficit of 2,252 faculty posts from the sanctioned 5,742, these institutions collectively face an overall shortage of approximately 39.2%.

The table displays the percentage of vacant faculty posts and the number of MBBS seats across various AIIMS institutions:

Medical College	Vacant posts (%)	MBBS seats
AIIMS Delhi	29.5	132
AIIMS Bhopal	28.5	125
AIIMS Bhubaneswar	25	125
AIIMS Jodhpur	25.5	125
AIIMS Patna	30.4	125
AIIMS Raipur	38.3	125
AIIMS Rishikesh	30.1	125
AIIMS Raebareli	49.2	100
AIIMS Mangalagiri	48.2	125
AIIMS Nagpur	50.3	125
AIIMS Kalyani	58.3	125
AIIMS Gorakhpur	43.1	125
AIIMS Bathinda	31.5	100
AIIMS Deoghar	39.8	125
AIIMS Bibinagar	40.4	100
AIIMS Bilaspur	48.9	100
AIIMS Jammu	54	62
AIIMS Madurai	74.3	50
AIIMS Rajkot	61.7	50
AIIMS Guwahati	50.2	100
Total	39.2	2,169

Six AIIMS institutions—AIIMS Madurai, AIIMS Rajkot, AIIMS Kalyani, AIIMS Jammu, AIIMS Nagpur, and AIIMS Guwahati—struggle with a faculty shortage exceeding 50%. Furthermore, AIIMS Raebareli, AIIMS Bilaspur, and AIIMS Mangalagiri are also confronted with nearly half of their faculty positions lying vacant.

AIIMS Madurai holds the unfortunate distinction among central government-operated premier medical institutions, facing the highest faculty shortage of 74.3%, with 136 vacancies out of its 183 sanctioned posts. Despite its sanction in 2018, AIIMS Madurai is yet to transition to a permanent campus. It conducts MBBS classes for 50 students at a temporary campus in Government Medical College (GMC), Ramanathapuram, starting April 2022.

Construction of the permanent campus's boundary wall has concluded, targeting the project's completion by October 2026. In comparison, AIIMS Bhubaneswar contends with a faculty deficit of at least 25%.