Kamal Ghorui
NEW DELHI: Nearly one in every three faculty positions across India’s premier All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is vacant, the Centre informed the Rajya Sabha, exposing large staffing gaps across both older and newly established institutes.In a written reply to a question by Shri Golla Baburao, Minister of State for Health Shri Prataprao Jadhav tabled institute-wise details of sanctioned, filled and vacant posts across 20 operational AIIMS.The data show substantial faculty shortages nationwide. At AIIMS New Delhi, the country’s flagship institute, 446 of 1,306 sanctioned faculty posts are vacant. Jodhpur has 184 vacancies, Mangalagiri 138, Nagpur 135, Kalyani 134 and Rishikesh 126.Newer institutes appear particularly strained. AIIMS Madurai has only 70 faculty members against a sanctioned strength of 183, leaving 113 posts vacant. Rajkot has 105 vacancies, Raebareli 98 and Gorakhpur 96 unfilled faculty positions.The shortage is even more pronounced in non-faculty positions, which include nursing staff, technicians, administrative personnel and support services essential for hospital functioning. Across the 20 AIIMS, 17,205 non-faculty posts are vacant.AIIMS New Delhi alone has 2,542 non-faculty vacancies. Rishikesh has 1,144 unfilled posts, Patna 1,132, Raipur 1,069, Bhubaneswar 1,026 and Kalyani 1,050. At AIIMS Madurai, only 40 of 911 sanctioned non-faculty posts are filled, leaving 871 vacancies.The ministry stated that creation of posts and recruitment is a continuous process. Each AIIMS has a Standing Selection Committee constituted under its respective Act to conduct faculty recruitment.To address the gaps, the government has allowed engagement of retired faculty up to 70 years of age on contract in new AIIMS. A Visiting Faculty Scheme has been introduced to bring professors from other institutions for teaching purposes. Recruitment of nursing officers is conducted through the Nursing Officer Recruitment Common Eligibility Test (NORCET), while Group B and C non-faculty posts are filled through a Common Recruitment Examination (CRE). Junior and senior residents are selected twice a year through INI-CET and INI-SS examinations.The disclosure comes at a time when AIIMS institutions are expanding rapidly, increasing patient load, academic seats and super-speciality services. The scale of vacancies raises concerns about whether staffing levels are keeping pace with infrastructure growth and rising demand for tertiary healthcare.
