Two of New Delhi's premier central government medical institutions are grappling with a severe shortage of teaching doctors, even as some of their departments are surprisingly overstaffed, reveals official data obtained under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. The persistent vacancies in critical departments are raising alarms about the strain on patient services and medical education.
Alarming Vacancy Numbers in Key Hospitals
The data paints a concerning picture of staffing gaps at these vital healthcare hubs. Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital is functioning with 71 vacant faculty positions out of its total sanctioned strength of 283. Similarly, Lady Hardinge Medical College faces a deficit of 75 faculty members against its approved cadre of 355.
The shortfall at RML Hospital is particularly acute in core clinical departments that bear the brunt of Delhi's massive patient load. The medicine department is the worst affected, with a staggering 27 posts lying empty. This is followed by paediatrics, which has five vacancies, and anaesthesia, which has three. Medical professionals warn that even a limited shortage in these essential specialties can disproportionately disrupt outpatient services, emergency care, and inpatient management due to the relentless daily influx of patients.
Paradox of Overstaffing Amidst Shortages
In a stark contrast, the RTI data highlights a paradoxical situation where a few departments at RML Hospital are operating with more doctors than officially sanctioned. For instance, the orthopaedics department has four faculty members working against two sanctioned posts. The community medicine department hosts five faculty against three posts, and the pathology department has seven doctors against four approved positions.
Addressing the vacancy figures, an RML Hospital official explained that patient care and teaching duties are distributed among various categories of doctors. This includes both teaching and non-teaching faculty, general duty medical officers, and junior and senior residents. The official also noted that Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University has granted teaching equivalence to certain non-teaching doctors who shoulder academic responsibilities.
Recruitment Challenges and Impact on Healthcare
"Faculty under the teaching cadre are appointed by the Union health ministry and recruited through the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), not by the hospital itself," the official stated. "Requests to fill the vacant posts—on a regular or contractual basis—are consistently sent to the ministry, and the recruitment process is ongoing."
While Lady Hardinge Medical College did not provide a department-wise breakdown, officials confirmed that the overall deficit constitutes roughly one-fifth of its sanctioned teaching strength. Faculty members have pointed out that these persistent gaps drastically increase the workload for existing staff, adversely affecting patient care, postgraduate teaching, research supervision, and examination duties. Officials admit that vacancies exceeding 10% invariably disrupt both clinical services and academic functions.
Despite recruitment drives being conducted by the UPSC across more than 20 departments, retaining faculty remains a significant hurdle. Doctors often leave for more lucrative opportunities in corporate hospitals or move to other prestigious institutions like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). The RTI activist who procured the data emphasized that these unfilled positions are indirectly eroding the quality of patient care and teaching standards, urging authorities to fill the posts at the earliest.
