Over 23,000 posts vacant in 28 Central health institutions: Health Ministry

More than 23,000 sanctioned posts are lying vacant across 28 hospitals and medical institutions under the Union Health Ministry, according to data furnished by Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday in response to a question from member V. Sivadasan of CPI(M).

AIIMS New Delhi alone has 2,921 vacancies. Of the 1,313 sanctioned faculty posts, 873 are filled, leaving 440 vacant. In the non-faculty category, 11,432 of the 13,913 sanctioned posts are filled, with 2,481 lying vacant.

The 18 AIIMS institutions established under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) have 4,850 sanctioned faculty posts in 2026-27, of which 3,205 are filled. This leaves 1,645 vacancies, or about 34% of the sanctioned strength.

The shortage is particularly high in some institutions. At AIIMS Rajkot, 89 of 183 sanctioned faculty posts are vacant, while Guwahati has 64 vacancies out of 183, Bilaspur 78 out of 217 and Gorakhpur 92 out of 213.

Several other major Central institutions also have substantial vacancies. JIPMER, Puducherry, has 1,223 vacant posts; PGIMER, Chandigarh, 1,936; Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, 1,179; RML Hospital, New Delhi, 469; Lady Hardinge Medical College and its associated hospitals, New Delhi, 624; NIMHANS, Bengaluru, 507; NEIGRIHMS, Shillong, 599; RIMS, Imphal, 386; and the National Institute of Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases, New Delhi, 77.

The data also show a decline in the number of sanctioned posts in some institutions. At RML Hospital, the number fell from 4,093 in 2021-22 to 3,152 in 2025-26. At Lady Hardinge, it dropped from 3,097 to 2,841 during the corresponding period.

MP Sivadasan said vacancies in Central health institutions affected the availability of healthcare personnel and urged the Centre to create posts according to bed strength, patient load and treatment requirements and fill existing vacancies in a time-bound manner.