Several AIIMS across India are grappling with long-pending faculty vacancies, a report based on RTI data received by NDTV mentioned.  As per the published report, from Delhi to Jammu, posts sanctioned years ago have been lying vacant for years.

Hundreds of teaching and clinical positions, including professors, associate professors, and assistant professors, are vacant across key departments, including cardiology, medicine, paediatrics, anaesthesia, nephrology, and emergency care, raising concerns about the sustainability of India’s public healthcare infrastructure.

AIIMS Delhi Faces Persistent Faculty Vacancies 

RTI disclosures show department-wise faculty vacancies across multiple clinical and diagnostic specialties at AIIMS Delhi, Of the 1,019 sanctioned posts, 742 are filled, leaving 277 positions vacant. Senior-level vacancies are particularly high, with professor posts 28 per cent vacant and associate or additional professor positions showing gaps of 30-35 per cent.

Critical departments are most affected. Anaesthesiology has 11 vacancies out of 36 posts, Cardiology has 4 of 12 vacant posts, General Medicine 5 of 18 and Paediatrics 6 of 24. Surgical and emergency specialties, including Neurosurgery, Burns & Plastic Surgery, Trauma & Emergency, and Radiodiagnosis, report vacancy rates between 20 and 35 per cent, straining patient care and training.

Many positions have remained unfilled for five to 10 years, despite being sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) expansions. Administrative delays and difficulty attracting senior specialists have prolonged these gaps. Temporary contractual appointments partly plug shortages but cannot replace permanent faculty for supervision, research, or clinical leadership.

AIIMS Jodhpur 

AIIMS Jodhpur began its academic journey on September 17, 2012, making it the first of the new AIIMS to start its classes under the PMSSY initiative. Departments, including General Medicine, Surgery, Paediatrics, and Anaesthesiology, report vacancies of 30-35 per cent, leaving critical care and surgical services under strain. Across the institute, senior positions such as professors and additional professors have higher vacancy rates, often exceeding 35 per cent, while junior-level posts such as assistant professors are slightly better filled but still face gaps.

Many of these vacancies have persisted for several years, with sanctioned posts remaining unfilled due to delays in recruitment approvals and lengthy selection procedures. The institute has partly relied on contractual appointments to maintain departmental operations.

AIIMS Bhubaneswar

Data reveals that AIIMS Bhubaneswar, inaugurated in 2014, has 233 positions vacant out of a total sanctioned faculty strength of 315 posts, leaving 82 posts vacant. This translates to a vacancy rate of approximately 26 per cent, meaning nearly one out of every four sanctioned faculty positions remain unoccupied.

The shortage is most acute at the senior-most level. Of the 54 professor posts sanctioned at the institute, only 25 are filled, leaving 29 posts vacant. This amounts to a vacancy rate of over 53 per cent among professors, affecting academic leadership, clinical supervision, and postgraduate training.

At the assistant professor level, the situation is comparatively better but still concerning. Of the 133 sanctioned assistant professor posts, 118 are filled and 15 remain vacant, translating to a vacancy rate of around 11 per cent. High-burden departments such as Radiodiagnosis, Anaesthesiology, Burns and Plastic Surgery and General Medicine show vacancy levels ranging from 25 per cent to more than 50 per cent, directly impacting patient services and emergency care capacity.

RTI replies show that many of these posts were sanctioned several years ago but remain vacant due to delays in regular recruitment, forcing the institute to depend on temporary or contractual appointments.

AIIMS Bhopal

According to RTI data, the institute had 80 regular faculty posts vacant as of October 31, 2025, excluding those filled on a contractual basis, even though new posts were sanctioned as recently as September 2025, with no publicly available, time-bound action plan to clear the backlog.

Nearly 60 per cent of professor posts at AIIMS Bhopal are currently filled, meaning more than 40 per cent of senior teaching positions remain vacant. At the associate professor level, the fill rate stands at around 70 per cent, while assistant professor posts show a higher occupancy of around 80 per cent.

The data indicates that while junior-level recruitment has seen some progress, the lack of senior faculty continues to strain departments. Several departments are being run with heavy dependence on contractual or ad-hoc appointments.

Newer AIIMS

The situation is more severe at newer AIIMS institutions such as, Raipur, Nagpur, Jammu and Deoghar. RTI data from these centres shows that many posts sanctioned at the time of their establishment remain vacant years later. Across these institutes, vacancy rates range from 25 to over 40 per cent, reflecting a persistent gap between sanctioned posts and actual staffing.

At AIIMS Nagpur, specialties such as Emergency Medicine, Trauma, and Surgical departments continue to operate below sanctioned strength, with roughly 25-30 per cent of faculty posts vacant. Contractual appointments are used to fill immediate gaps but do not provide long-term academic leadership or continuity for teaching and research.

One of the more newly established AIIMS Kalyani in 2019 has 133 of 309 sanctioned posts across departments vacant, which translates to a vacancy rate of over 43 per cent.

The shortage is most acute at the senior-most level. Only 14 of 33 sanctioned professor posts are filled, leaving nearly 58 per cent vacant. Assistant professors, who form the bulk of the teaching and clinical workforce, show a deficit of 91 out of 200 sanctioned posts, or 45.5 per cent.

A department-wise annexure from AIIMS Mangalagiri reveals that 138 of 309 sanctioned faculty posts are vacant, placing the vacancy rate at around 45 per cent. Trauma and Emergency Medicine are functioning with four assistant professors against eight sanctioned posts. Urology has no assistant professor in position despite three sanctioned posts. Dentistry and Radiology also show vacancy levels exceeding 50 per cent at the assistant professor level.

AIIMS Bathinda, Bilaspur and Gorakhpur also reflect a similar pattern, with sanctioned posts across departments vacant.

In these newer AIIMS, more than one-third of sanctioned faculty posts remain unfilled despite approvals from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Why Are These Posts Still Vacant?

RTI data based on administrative records point to a combination of systemic issues that have stalled recruitment across AIIMS institutions. These include prolonged approval processes, lengthy selection procedures, limited incentives for senior specialists to relocate to newer AIIMS campuses, and an increasing dependence on short-term contractual appointments. The absence of legally mandated timelines for recruitment has further contributed to delays.

Several posts sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) years ago remain unfilled on a regular basis, highlighting gaps between policy intent and on-ground implementation.

The data underscores a broader structural problem: while India has rapidly expanded AIIMS infrastructure in newer cities, the availability of permanent, experienced faculty has not kept pace.