There is a huge shortage of doctors in 20 AIIMS of the country, a total of 2,897 posts are vacant in Delhi and 1,191 posts are vacant in Patna.

Thousands of posts are lying vacant in both faculty and non-faculty categories in all the 20 functioning All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) of the country. In response to an unstarred question in the Lok Sabha on July 24, 2026, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Prataprao Jadhav said that a large number of seats are still vacant in these institutions compared to the sanctioned posts during the year 2026-27. The government says that the pace of recruitment remains slow due to reasons like availability of qualified candidates, reservation roster and location of the institute.

According to the data given by the government in the Lok Sabha, a total of 17,340 sanctioned posts are vacant in 20 AIIMS of the country in 2026-27. These include 2,181 faculty and 15,159 non-faculty posts. This means that almost one out of every five sanctioned posts has still not been filled. The biggest shortage is in the non-faculty category, in which a large number of posts of nursing, technical and support staff are lying vacant. The situation of AIIMS New Delhi, the oldest and largest institute of the country, is of most concern. Here out of 1,313 sanctioned faculty posts, only 877 are filled, i.e. 436 posts are vacant. Out of 13,913 sanctioned non-faculty posts, 2,461 posts are vacant. In this way, a total of 2,897 posts are vacant in Delhi AIIMS alone, which is more than any other AIIMS in the country.

AIIMS with highest number of vacant posts

Based on the data of 2026-27, the top 10 AIIMS of the country in terms of total vacant posts (faculty + non-faculty) are-

rank	AIIMS	faculty vacant	non-faculty vacant	total vacant posts
1	New Delhi	436	2,461	2,897
2	Patna	88	1,103	1,191
3	Raipur	92	1,068	1,160
4	Bhubaneswar	99	1,045	1,144
5	Rishikesh	127	973	1,100
6	Madurai	108	939	1,047
7	Bhopal	68	853	921
8	jodhpur	184	695	879
9	Guwahati	64	685	749
10	Rajkot	89	650	739

It is clear from this list that not only the new AIIMS, but also the already functioning institutes of Patna, Raipur, Bhubaneswar and Rishikesh have more than 1,000 vacancies. Interestingly, the pace of non-faculty recruitment in new AIIMS like Madurai has been particularly slow. In 2023-24, only 4 out of 903 sanctioned posts of non-faculty were filled and even after three years, 939 out of 1,011 sanctioned posts are vacant.

three year trend

If we look at the data, the number of sanctioned posts in most of the AIIMS has also been increased between 2023-24 to 2026-27 and there is a gradual improvement in recruitment. For example, the number of non-faculty vacancies at AIIMS New Delhi has reduced from 2,550 in 2024-25 to 2,461 in 2026-27. Similarly, the vacant posts of non-faculty in AIIMS Rajkot reduced from 819 in 2023-24 to 650 in 2026-27. However, this improvement is not happening as fast as new posts are being sanctioned. Therefore, the total number of vacant posts still remains high.

Government told ways to speed up recruitment

The Central Government has taken several steps to fill the vacant posts in AIIMS. Standing Selection Committee has been formed in all the institutions. In the new AIIMS, the facility to appoint retired faculty up to 70 years of age on contract has been given. Professors from India and abroad are also being added through the Visiting Faculty Scheme. Nursing officers are being recruited through NORCET, Group B and C employees are being recruited through Common Recruitment Exam (CRE) and Junior and Senior Residents are being recruited through INI-CET and INI-SS.

Trying to provide relief to patients

Despite the vacant posts, the government claims that many steps are being taken for the convenience of the patients. These include expansion of OPD services, increasing the capacity of registration, online appointment system, digital health service under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), same day testing facility, expansion of diagnostic service and cashless treatment under government schemes.

Overall, the data shows that even in big and prestigious institutions like AIIMS, there is a huge shortage of staff. Especially accelerating the recruitment of non-faculty staff will be one of the biggest challenges in the coming times to improve the quality of patient care and health services.

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