Why PG doctors are quitting premier medical institutes

NEW DELHI: Postgraduate doctors are walking away from residency programmes at some of India's leading medical institutions. RTI replies show exits across AIIMS campuses and JIPMER, with AIIMS Delhi alone reporting 34 junior resident departures in 2025. While several institutes lack consolidated data on psychiatric counselling or workplace stress among residents, Dr Lakshya Mittal, chairperson of United Doctors Front (UDF), said multiple RTI applications filed by its members had revealed postgraduate doctors quitting premier medical institutions despite securing top NEET-PG ranks. He cited complaints of duties extending beyond 36 hours, workplace harassment, toxic work culture and inadequate support. “Residency is meant to train doctors, not break them. Discipline is not humiliation and dedication is not exploitation,” Mittal said, urging authorities to enforce working-hour regulations, establish independent grievance-redressal mechanisms and fix institutional accountability. UDF has also filed a PIL in the Supreme Court. However, the figures from individual institutions show that departures have continued, even as some reported a decline. At AIIMS Delhi, 34 junior resident doctors quit in 2025, compared with 60 in 2024, a decline of about 43%. The number of residents joining also fell, from 324 in 2024 to 267 in 2025. Department-wise figures show the highest number of exits in anaesthesiology at seven, followed by ophthalmology at six. Surgery reported three exits, as did pathology. Ophthalmology had recorded 14 exits in 2024. JIPMER, Puducherry, also reported a decline in resignations. A combined count of departures from its January and July batches shows 44 residents resigned in 2025, compared with 60 in 2024, a fall of nearly 27%. However, exits continued across several specialities, including anaesthesiology, emergency medicine, orthopaedics, pathology and surgery. The trend is not confined to these two institutions. AIIMS Kalyani reported 15 exits across all three years of postgraduate training in 2025, including 13 from the January and July batches. Another 11 students from the 2026 batches had left by the time of its reply. AIIMS Raipur reported 19 exits from its 2025 batches, AIIMS Patna 12, while AIIMS Gorakhpur also reported departures. At AIIMS Rishikesh, 30 students across various postgraduate and super-speciality programmes left in 2025. The RTI also sought details of psychiatric counselling and whether stress, depression or sleep deprivation were recorded as reasons for leaving. AIIMS Delhi said it had no compiled counselling data, while AIIMS Rishikesh reported six postgraduate students receiving psychiatric counselling in 2026 but maintained no consolidated record of workplace-related stress. AIIMS Raipur reported no residents seeking counselling in 2025 or 2026.

AIIMS Patna reported 15 residents receiving counselling in 2025 and none in 2026, while AIIMS Kalyani declined to provide the information, citing RTI provisions. The figures are not directly comparable as institutes provided data for different periods and batches. While they establish that residents are leaving, the reasons remain unclear, with several institutes lacking records that could help explain the departures.