Bed, staff shortages strain AIIMS Mangalagiri services

Vijayawada: With an average daily outpatient influx of 3,500, which exceeds 4,000 on some days, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Mangalagiri, a premier central medical institute in the Central Andhra region with a history of serving over 30 lakh outpatients not only from Andhra Pradesh but also from neighbouring states, is plagued by a staff shortage.Over the years, the institute witnessed an 835% growth in OPD services, from serving 84,235 OPD patients in 2019 to serving 8.46 lakh OPD patients in 2025. Subsequently, a total of 26,310 patients received in-patient services at the hospital last year.Due to the shortage, AIIMS Mangalagiri currently has only around 650 beds functioning on a full-fledged basis, as against the 960 sanctioned beds, forcing patients in need of emergency and other healthcare services to visit private hospitals in the region.According to official data, the medical gastroenterology and surgical gastroenterology, along with rheumatology and neonatology departments, are not functioning, as staff recruitment in these departments was not done."Despite staff unavailability in neonatology, doctors from paediatrics and paediatric surgery are attending to emergency and critical cases in neonatology at the hospital," an official, requesting anonymity, said, adding the institute issued multiple notifications to fill vacant posts across departments but got a mediocre response."Doctors feel that the salaries paid to them at AIIMS hospitals are non-remunerative, as they can earn double and triple in salaries practising at private hospitals compared to what they are paid in AIIMS," the official opined."As the patient footfall increases by the day, we are working to augment the bed capacity gradually to meet the rising demand. Currently, there are 650 functioning beds, a 10X growth rate when compared to just 50 functional beds in 2020. Of the 650 functional beds, the hospital has 88 ICU beds," said AIIMS Mangalagiri executive director Professor Dr Ahanthem Santa Singh.The executive director said that the institute will soon recruit at least 50 professor posts to fill the vacancies and address the staff shortages in various super speciality departments at the hospital.