Chennai: The flagship AIIMS Madurai, which admitted its first batch of 50 MBBS students for the 2021–2022 academic year at a temporary campus in Government Medical College and Hospital in Ramanathapuram, is now facing severe staff shortage among the country’s functional AIIMS, says data by the Union health ministry in Lok Sabha.A response in Lok Sabha on Friday shows AIIMS Madurai has 183 sanctioned faculty posts but only 75 teachers in position in 2026–27, leaving 108 posts vacant. The institute had 47 faculty members in 2023–24, 50 in 2024–25 and 70 in 2025–26.No other AIIMS on the list has this many unfilled teaching positions. For instance, in Mangalagiri, Andhra Pradesh, faculty strength rose from 134 in 2023–24 to 219 in 2026–27, against a sanctioned strength that increased from 259 to 309 during the period. In Rajkot, Gujarat, which also has a sanctioned strength of 183 faculty posts, the number of teachers increased from 70 in 2023–24 to 94 in 2026–27. Across the 20 AIIMS listed, faculty and non‑faculty vacancies vary widely, with institutes such as Bhopal having relatively lower gaps and newer ones, including Madurai and Rajkot, reporting much higher shortfalls.
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The staffing crisis is even more severe on the non‑faculty side: AIIMS Madurai has 1,011 non‑faculty posts sanctioned but only 72 positions filled, leaving 939 vacancies, the highest in the table. Experts and senior administrators of govt colleges point out that the apex regulatory body for medical education, the National Medical Commission, would not have allowed any other college in the country to function without buildings, a hospital or staff. “They sent notices to all 36 govt colleges for issues as trivial as nonfunctional CCTV cameras. I don’t understand how the ministry can do this for so many years to its own institutions,” said former health minister Ma Subramanian.While students continue to study at Ramanathapuram, the first batch of AIIMS‑Madurai students has now shifted to Madurai’s Rajaji Government General Hospital for their final‑year internship. “At least two more batches will have to do their internship at Madurai because the AIIMS hospital is not ready yet,” said Dr K Senthil, a member of the PG Board of the National Medical Commission. “I don’t know why they chose a new medical college like Ramanathapuram to attach students from AIIMS. It’s far away and the hospital there cannot accommodate them,” he said.The college campus is scheduled to be substantially ready between late 2026 and early 2027, while the full hospital complex is expected to take at least another year or more to be completed, according to project timelines shared by officials and RTI replies. “I belong to the first batch. I chose AIIMS instead of government medical colleges because I thought this was an institute of national importance. Now I will be an AIIMS alumnus without ever having studied on a fully functional AIIMS campus,” said a student, who is now doing his internship in Madurai. “We hear students from subsequent batches will also be sent to Madurai. All this after having high scores in NEET,” he said.
