In what can be termed a significant brain drain, at least 429 faculty members have resigned from various All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) across the country over the past three years since 2022, including 52 from AIIMS New Delhi, the government informed Parliament recently.
Minister of State for Health, Prataprao Jadhav, responding to queries in Parliament, stated that the reasons for resignation ranged from personal to professional factors. The highest number of resignations were reported from AIIMS Delhi, the flagship institution, followed by AIIMS Rishikesh, Raipur, Bilaspur, and Mangalagiri.
This exodus comes amid a severe shortage of faculty, with nearly one-third of faculty positions remaining vacant across all 20 AIIMS institutes. For instance, AIIMS Delhi has 462 out of 1,306 sanctioned faculty posts unfilled, while AIIMS Bhopal and Bhubaneswar report vacancy rates of 23% and 31% respectively.
To address these challenges, the government has introduced several measures, including hiring retired professors on contract and launching a visiting faculty scheme allowing senior academics from India and abroad to teach at newer AIIMS institutions.
Shortages also persist in critical non-faculty positions such as nursing and technical staff, compounding the strain on these premier healthcare institutions.
In response to the broader shortage of medical professionals, Minister Anupriya Patel highlighted the government’s efforts to expand medical education infrastructure. Since 2014, the number of medical colleges has nearly doubled from 387 to 780, while undergraduate and postgraduate medical seats have also seen substantial increases.
Schemes like the centrally sponsored programme for establishing new medical colleges by upgrading district hospitals, strengthening existing institutions, and the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) for upgrading government medical colleges are underway. Notably, 22 new AIIMS have been approved, signaling continued expansion of the country’s healthcare education capacity.
Patel was responding to MP Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh’s query seeking details of the steps undertaken by the Government to meet the shortage of medical professionals in the public hospitals.
