By: Akanksha
Postgraduate doctors are walking away from residency programme midway at some of India’s leading and most prestigious medical institutes. Right to Information (RTI) replies obtained by a doctors’ body, the United Doctors Front (UDF), have revealed that a total of 477 postgraduate and super-specialty medical students abandoned their courses before completion across nine All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) centers and the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) Puducherry over the last three years.
Out of approximately 3,130 students who joined these ten premier institutions, roughly 15% did not complete their courses, with dropout rates reaching as high as 31% at some institutes. Despite working intensely to secure top ranks in the highly competitive NEET-PG examination, young resident doctors are quitting due to systemic problems, including continuous duties extending beyond 36 hours, workplace harassment, toxic work culture, and inadequate institutional support.
The RTI covers a three-year period across nine AIIMS Institutions (Delhi, Kalyani, Jodhpur, Rishikesh, Raipur, Patna, Nagpur, Gorakhpur, and Bibinagar) and JIPMER Puducherry. The figures are not directly comparable as institutes provided data for different periods and batches, and while some reported a decline in resignations, departures have continued across specialties.
Looking closer at the individual institutional responses, the year-by-year numbers and psychiatric counselling records show how different campuses are affected:
AIIMS Delhi: In 2024, 324 students joined and 60 left; in 2025, admissions fell to 267 and 34 junior residents quit, a decline of about 43%. Department-wise figures for 2025 show the highest exits in anesthesiology at seven, followed by ophthalmology at six (down from 14 exits in 2024), and surgery and pathology at three each.
JIPMER Puducherry: A combined count from its January and July batches shows 44 residents resigned in 2025 compared with 60 in 2024, a fall of nearly 27%, though exists continued across anesthesiology, emergency medicine, orthopedics, pathology, and surgery.
Regional AIIMS Breakdown: AIIMS Gorakhpur had 51 admissions and 19 exits in 2025, followed by 55 admissions and 14 exits in 2026. AIIMS Jodhpur saw 276 join and 33 leave in 2025, and 227 join and 33 leave in 2026. AIIMS Kalyani reported 15 exits across all three training years in 2025 (including 13 of 81 from the January and July batches), and 11 exits out of 112 admissions in 2026. AIIMS Raipur had 155 join and 19 leave in 2025, and 162 join and eight leave in 2026. AIIMS Patna saw 63 join and 12 leave in 2025, and 129 join and eight leave in 2026. At AIIMS Rishikesh, 30 students across various postgraduate and super-speciality programmes left in 2025. At AIIMS Bibinagar, 56 joined and three left in 2025, while 65 joined in 2026 ith 2026 exits unknown.
Psychiatric Counselling Records: When asked about psychiatric counselling and whether stress, depression, or sleep deprivation were recorded as reasons for leaving, AIIMS Delhi had no compiled data. AIIMS Rishikesh reported six PG students receiving counselling in 2026 but kept no consolidated record of workplace-related stress. AIIMS Patna reported 15 residents receiving counselling in 2025 and none in 2026. AIIMS Raipur reported none in 2025 or 2026, and AIIMS Kalyani declined to provide the information citing RTI provisions.
Commenting on the matter to Medical Dialogues, UDP Chairperson Dr. Lakshya Mittal said that India’s premier medical institutions are facing a deeply concerning challenge. RTI responses obtained from multiple AIIMS institutions, PGIMER and other central medical institutions reveal instances of postgraduate doctors leaving their courses, despite having secured highly competitive ranks and earning admission to some of the country’s most prestigious medical institutions.
Just pause and think about it. A doctor studies for years, secures a coveted NEET-PG rank, gets admission to a premier institution after immense hard work, and then decides to quit. Why? What is driving these young doctors away from institutions they worked so hard to enter? We are repeatedly receiving grievances concerning excessively long working hours, continuous duties extending beyond 36 hours, toxic workplace culture, mental harassment, inadequate support and an institutional environment that often fails to recognize resident doctors as human beings, he added to Medical Dialogues.
Similarly, in The Arvindams, Dr. Mittal said that they are receiving complaints from resident doctors about long hours. Many are being harassed at work. They are not provided with a healthy working environment. There is very poor support from the institute.
A particularly troubling aspect highlighted by the data is the perpetuation of a ‘hazing’ culture, even though resident doctors are the backbone of hospital operations, ensuring round the clock patient care and shouldering enormous clinical responsibilities.
Addressing this in Medical Dialogues, Dr. Mittal stated that yet, their own physical and mental well-being is frequently neglected. An even more disturbing mindset persists in certain institutions, they went through this, so the next generation must go through it too. This culture of normalizing suffering , humiliation and exploitation must go through it too. What previous generations may have endured cannot become a justification for subjecting future doctors to the same conditions. Residency is meant to train doctors, not break them, discipline is not exploitation, and medical training must never come at the cost of human dignity.
For an MBBS Graduate preparing for NEET-PG counselling that institutional prestige does not guarantee a healthy training environment. Because dropout rates vary from 2% at AIIMS Bibiganagar to 31% at AIIMS Gorakhpur, aspirants can use attrition figures as a proxy for institutional health. Before accepting a seat, candidates should contact current mental health support, and grievance redressal mechanisms, or file RTI requests to obtain institute-specific attrition data. If a resident finds themselves in an unsustainable environment after joining, they can speak to seniors, file formal grievances, contact advocacy groups like the UDF, or seek legal counsel.
While guidelines limiting continuous duty to 24 hours with mandatory rest periods exist on paper from the Indian Medical Association and state governments, enforcement is inconsistent. The National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Board of Examinations and Medical Sciences (NBEMS) must mandate regular audits of resident working conditions, enforce working-hour regulations with penalties, establish independent grievance-redressal mechanisms, and publicly report retention rates. The UDF has also filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) before the Supreme Court.
Dr. Mittal concluded that the government and regulatory authorities must urgently investigate the reasons behind these resignations, ensure effective implementation of residency working-hour regulations, establish independent grievance-redressal mechanisms and fix institutional accountability. If this continues, the day is not far when we may struggle to find young doctors willing to take up to lose an entire generation of dedicated doctors to a toxic training environment. It is time to reform the system before the system drives away the very doctors it is supposed to train.
(Rh/APC)