All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Indian Economy glossary

Also called: AIIMS · Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Beyond NCERT

Meaning

All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is a group of top public medical institutes run by the Centre. Each one does three jobs in one place: it treats patients, teaches doctors and nurses, and does medical research. AIIMS New Delhi is the original model. New AIIMS are being set up in other regions under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

Why it matters:

  • AIIMS is India's main public answer to two gaps. Good tertiary care is concentrated in a few metros, and the country is short of trained doctors.
  • Both gaps hurt India's human capital (the skills, knowledge and health that make workers productive).

Explanation

The three-in-one model

  • Patient care: AIIMS gives tertiary care, which is specialised, super-specialty treatment, usually for patients referred from lower-level hospitals.
  • Services include OPD, IPD, emergency and trauma care, and diagnostics.

  • OPD (outpatient department) means care without admission. IPD (inpatient department) means care for admitted patients.

  • Medical education: each AIIMS trains undergraduates (UG), postgraduates (PG) and nurses. So it builds hospitals and the health workforce at the same time.

  • Research: patient care and teaching sit next to research in the same institution.
  • Legal status: AIIMS are Institutions of National Importance. This status is given by an Act of Parliament, which puts them under the Centre, not the states.

PMSSY: how new AIIMS are being built

  • What PMSSY is: a Central Sector Scheme (fully paid for by the Centre). It was announced in August 2003.
  • Its two aims:
  • correct regional imbalances in tertiary healthcare;

  • improve the quality of medical education.

  • Its two parts:

  • setting up new AIIMS;

  • upgrading existing Government Medical Colleges/Institutions (GMCIs), with 75 such projects.

  • Phase I AIIMS: Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. These six were working by Feb 2021, while 16 more were under construction, making 22 sanctioned in all.

What makes a new AIIMS succeed or fail

Buildings alone are not enough. A new AIIMS needs doctors, beds and working equipment.

  • Faculty shortage: the CAG (the government's auditor) checked the six Phase I AIIMS in Report No. 10 of 2018:
  • faculty (teaching doctor) posts were 55% to 83% vacant;

  • non-faculty posts (nurses, technicians, other staff) were 77% to 97% vacant.

  • Why posts stayed empty:

  • recruitment rules were finalised late;
  • posts got stuck in court cases;

  • there were not enough eligible candidates.

  • Bed shortage: the six Phase I AIIMS had bed shortages of 43% to 84%.

  • Cost overrun: the cost of each Phase I AIIMS was estimated at ₹332 crore in March 2006 and revised to ₹820 crore in March 2010, a 145% rise.
  • Idle equipment: equipment worth ₹1,273 crore was ordered, but only ₹599 crore of it (about 47%) was in use.
  • No rulebook: PMSSY had no operational guidelines (written rules for running the scheme), so key decisions were made case by case.

Worked example: why the OPD count rose

  • 2021-22: 50.03 lakh OPD visits ÷ 6 working AIIMS ≈ 8.3 lakh per AIIMS
  • 2025-26: 144.96 lakh OPD visits ÷ 18 working AIIMS ≈ 8.1 lakh per AIIMS
  • Total OPD rose about 2.9 times, but visits per AIIMS stayed roughly flat.
  • Lesson: the growth came mostly from more AIIMS opening, not from each AIIMS serving more people. This is only a rough check, because some AIIMS were partly open in the years between.

In India

  • Nodal ministry: Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
  • Status in 2026: 22 new AIIMS are approved under PMSSY and 18 are fully functional. AIIMS Kalyani (West Bengal) has been reported as functional.
  • Use: new AIIMS have handled about 6.01 crore OPD consultations from 2021-22 to 31 October 2026. The highest single year was 2025-26, with 144.96 lakh.
  • Federal angle: health is a State subject under the Seventh Schedule, but PMSSY is fully Centre-funded. The Centre is filling a gap in tertiary care.
  • Fixing staff shortages: the Ministry has tried three measures:
  • a Standing Selection Committee in each new AIIMS (a hiring panel that meets through the year);
  • doctors joining on deputation (temporary transfer) from government colleges;

  • hiring retired faculty on contract up to age 70.

  • Regulation: medical education, including at AIIMS, comes under the National Medical Commission (NMC Act 2019; it replaced the MCI in 2020).

  • Human capital link:
  • AIIMS spending is curative medicine (treatment during illness), one of the four forms of health spending.

  • Care closer to home cuts travel, lodging and lost wages. That lowers out-of-pocket spending (money families pay directly). National Health Accounts 2021-22 put out-of-pocket spending at about 39% of total health spending, down from about 64% in 2013-14.

  • Brain drain: AIIMS and IIT graduates have been emigrating since the 1960s, mainly to the US. The public money spent on their education leaves with them.

Don't confuse with

  • Ayushman Bharat PM-JAY (2018): PM-JAY is an insurance scheme that pays for hospital care, up to ₹5 lakh per family per year. PMSSY builds institutions (new AIIMS and upgraded GMCIs).
  • Centrally Sponsored Scheme: here the Centre and states share the cost. PMSSY is a Central Sector Scheme, so the Centre pays 100%.
  • Approved vs functional AIIMS: 22 are approved, but only 18 are fully functional (2026). "22 functional AIIMS" is a trap.
  • Ayushman Arogya Mandirs: these give primary care close to home. AIIMS gives tertiary (super-specialty, referral) care. They sit at opposite ends of the same referral chain.

Prelims Hooks

  • PMSSY was announced in August 2003. It is a Central Sector Scheme under MoHFW.
  • PMSSY has two parts: new AIIMS and upgrading 75 GMCIs.
  • Phase I AIIMS: Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur, Rishikesh. Trap: Jodhpur, not Jaipur.
  • 22 approved, 18 fully functional (2026). In Feb 2021 only 6 were working.
  • 6.01 crore is the cumulative OPD total from 2021-22 to Oct 2026, not one year's figure. It counts OPD (non-admitted) visits only, not admissions.
  • CAG Report No. 10 of 2018 audited PMSSY. It found faculty posts 55% to 83% vacant and the cost per Phase I AIIMS up from ₹332 crore to ₹820 crore.

Mains Points

  • Regional equity vs approval-to-function gap: PMSSY spreads super-specialty care beyond the metros. But in Phase I, buildings came up before doctors, beds and equipment. Answers should argue for staffing alongside construction and for publishing per-AIIMS figures on working beds, filled posts and equipment in use, as the CAG advised.
  • Human resources for health is the binding limit: every new AIIMS competes for the same small pool of senior specialists. Standing Selection Committees and hiring retired faculty help, but they cannot quickly create senior doctors. The lasting fix is more PG training, and keeping AIIMS graduates in India to stop brain drain.
  • Fiscal federalism and the referral chain: health is a State subject, yet the Centre fully funds AIIMS. Strong tertiary hubs without strong primary and secondary care will overload AIIMS. So PMSSY works best when linked with Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and PM-JAY.

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