Long hours, toxic culture drive PG docs to quit top institutes

A postgraduate medical residency is a period of supervised hospital training after a doctor earns a medical degree. Residents specialise in fields such as surgery, anaesthesiology or pathology. The programme combines education with patient care. This matters because residents are both learners and working members of hospital teams.

A junior resident typically examines patients, records clinical information, follows treatment plans and assists senior doctors with procedures. The article shows that junior residents can face demanding schedules. At AIIMS Delhi, 34 junior residents left in 2025. Their duties occurred within departments including anaesthesiology, ophthalmology, surgery and pathology.

Residency should build clinical ability without damaging doctors’ wellbeing. The article quotes Dr Lakshya Mittal saying residency is meant to train doctors, not break them. It also reports complaints about duties exceeding 36 hours, harassment and inadequate support. These concerns have prompted calls for working-hour rules, independent complaint systems and stronger institutional accountability.

The institutions reported departures, but they did not provide one uniform total. Adding the stated 2025 figures for AIIMS Delhi, JIPMER, AIIMS Kalyani, AIIMS Raipur, AIIMS Patna and AIIMS Rishikesh gives at least 154 exits. This excludes AIIMS Gorakhpur, which reported departures without a number, and does not treat later Kalyani data as part of 2025.

AIIMS Delhi reported 34 junior resident departures in 2025, down from 60 in 2024. That was a decline of about 43%. Its resident intake also dropped from 324 to 267. JIPMER reported 44 departures in 2025, combining its January and July batches, compared with 60 in 2024. That was a fall of nearly 27%.

The decreases do not mean departures stopped. Exits continued across several specialties and campuses. The figures are only a broad picture because institutions covered different batches and periods. They show persistence of the issue, not a perfectly comparable national trend.

Top NEET-PG ranks can secure entry into prestigious postgraduate programmes, but they do not remove the pressures of residency. The article reports complaints of duties lasting beyond 36 hours, workplace harassment, toxic work culture and inadequate support. These conditions may make doctors reconsider continuing, even after achieving highly competitive admissions.

Dr Lakshya Mittal of United Doctors Front said RTI applications showed postgraduate doctors leaving premier institutions despite strong ranks. His group argues that residency should provide training rather than humiliation or exploitation. The reported problem is therefore not simply academic difficulty. It concerns how hospitals organise work, supervision, discipline and support.

The article does not establish one confirmed reason for every resignation. Several institutions lack records on workplace stress, depression, sleep deprivation or counselling. As a result, the link between individual departures and particular conditions remains unclear. UDF has filed a Supreme Court PIL and called for rules, grievance systems and accountability.

Duties lasting more than 36 hours can leave doctors severely tired. Harassment and a toxic workplace can add fear, distress and loss of confidence. Inadequate support may make it harder to recover or seek help. The article connects these concerns with residents’ wellbeing, while noting that many institutes do not keep consolidated records of stress, depression or sleep deprivation.

The likely clinical mechanism is straightforward: fatigue and psychological strain can reduce concentration, decision-making and communication. Those abilities are important when doctors examine patients, respond to emergencies or coordinate treatment. However, the article does not provide measured data linking long duties or harassment to specific patient-care errors.

The current evidence is therefore incomplete. AIIMS Delhi had no compiled counselling data, and AIIMS Raipur reported no residents seeking counselling in 2025 or 2026. The reported conditions still raise a serious safety concern. Working-hour enforcement, independent complaints processes and institutional accountability could protect residents and patient care.

Resignation figures can be compared fairly only when they cover the same time span, training years and types of programmes. The institutions in this report did not use one common reporting method. Some gave figures for calendar years, while others referred to particular admission batches or replies made later.

JIPMER’s 2025 total combined departures from its January and July batches. AIIMS Kalyani reported 15 exits across all three postgraduate years in 2025, then separately reported 11 students from 2026 batches had left by the time of its reply. AIIMS Rishikesh counted students across postgraduate and super-speciality programmes. These are different populations and periods.

Therefore, the figures establish that residents are leaving, but they cannot produce a precise campus ranking or national trend. AIIMS Gorakhpur also reported departures without a number in the supplied account. Better comparison would require common definitions, dates, batches, specialties and programme categories, plus consistent reasons for leaving.

Residency working-hour rules and workplace protections must be set and enforced by the relevant authorities and by the institutions running training programmes. The article does not name a single regulator or assign a precise legal duty. It does make clear that authorities should act and institutions should be accountable for working conditions.

Dr Lakshya Mittal urged authorities to enforce working-hour regulations, create independent grievance-redressal mechanisms and fix institutional accountability. These mechanisms matter because complaints about harassment or unsafe conditions should not depend only on the hierarchy within a hospital. An independent route could allow residents to report problems without relying solely on supervisors.

United Doctors Front has filed a PIL in the Supreme Court, showing that the issue has moved beyond individual hospitals. The article does not report a final court decision or new rules. For now, responsibility remains a public and institutional governance concern, while the reported departures and incomplete counselling records show why oversight is being demanded.

Hospitals use postgraduate residents for two connected purposes: specialist education and patient care. Residency is hands-on training, so doctors learn by examining patients, helping manage cases and working within clinical departments. At the same time, their work supports the hospital’s daily services. This dual role makes residency central to both learning and operations.

The article’s figures show residents spread across many specialties. Departures were reported in anaesthesiology, ophthalmology, surgery, pathology, emergency medicine and orthopaedics. AIIMS Delhi recorded the most 2025 exits in anaesthesiology, with seven, followed by six in ophthalmology. These departments depend on trained doctors who can participate in ongoing clinical work while supervised.

Because residents carry this combined responsibility, poor conditions can affect both training and service delivery. Long duties, harassment or inadequate support may push doctors out and disrupt teams. The article does not quantify effects on hospital workloads or patients. It does show why authorities are urged to protect training quality, working hours and accountability.