A severe faculty shortage plagues India’s premier public medical institutions, with over 40 per cent of sanctioned teaching positions across 21 AIIMS lying vacant in 2025-26, the highest in the last four years.

The figures were revealed in a written response by Union health minister Prataprao Jadhav to Rajya Sabha MP Javed Ali Khan, raising serious questions about the human resource crisis at these institutes of national importance.

According to the health ministry, 2,561 out of 6,376 sanctioned faculty positions remain vacant this year, marking a vacancy rate of 40.2 per cent, equal to last year’s figure.

This is the highest absolute number of vacancies since 2022-23, when 2,099 posts were unfilled.

Six institutes, including the original AIIMS in New Delhi, recorded their highest faculty vacancies in 2025-26 in the last four years. AIIMS Delhi has 462 vacant faculty positions.

Others with high vacancies include Jodhpur (186), Rishikesh (147), Bhubaneswar (103), Mangalagiri (158), and Gorakhpur (98).

Even more concerning were the numbers from the newer AIIMS campuses, where staffing levels remained low.

AIIMS Awantipora in Jammu and Kashmir has 94 faculty posts sanctioned since 2023-24 and all of them remain vacant. At AIIMS Madurai, 49 of 183 sanctioned faculty posts are filled. AIIMS Rajkot has 76 of 183 faculty positions staffed, and Bilaspur has 126 of 217 sanctioned posts filled.

Data showed that the faculty shortage has worsened since 2022-23.

That year, 2,099 out of 5,410 posts (38.8 per cent) were vacant. The following year, 2,346 out of 5,836 positions were unfilled (40.2 per cent). Although there was a slight dip in 2024-25 to 37.6 per cent, 2025-26 saw a rise again.

The government data also shows that faculty vacancies increased between 2022-23 and 2025-26 at 10 AIIMS campuses: Delhi, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Rishikesh, Mangalagiri, Nagpur, Kalyani, Gorakhpur, Bilaspur, and Deoghar.

10 other institutes – AIIMS Bhopal, Raipur, Madurai, Patna, Bathinda, Guwahati, Bibinagar, Raebareli, Rajkot, and Jammu–saw improvement.

The shortage, many believe, is rooted in poor pay scales and better prospects in the private sector.

Former AIIMS Bhopal executive director Ajai Singh said the lack of adequate teaching staff hurts the quality of medical education. “Practical learning of medical concepts gets affected, which impacts the training of doctors,” he said.

Singh said the government needs to acknowledge that “doctors avoid working in government hospitals due to the low pay compared to corporate hospitals,” adding, “Doctors find a more lucrative future in corporate hospitals.”

In Parliament, minister Jadhav stated that faculty recruitment is a “continuous process.” He said each AIIMS has a Standing Selection Committee to fast-track appointments and that retired faculty from other top government institutions may be hired on contract till the age of 70.

“A visiting faculty scheme has been introduced to allow senior faculty from Indian and foreign institutions to teach at the new AIIMS,” the minister said.

Jadhav also provided updates on the status of the AIIMS network.

Of the 23 announced AIIMS, 19 are fully functional. AIIMS Madurai is partially functional, while those in Awantipora, Darbhanga (Bihar), and Rewari (Haryana) are still under construction. Sanctioned faculty posts were issued to all but three of these institutes starting from 2022-23.

AIIMS Darbhanga and Rewari still do not have any sanctioned faculty posts.