The fact that more than 18,000 postgraduate (PG) medical seats are still unfilled after NEET UG Round 2 counseling is a matter of heated contention for the country's medical fraternity. At a time that the nation often discusses doctor shortages, the irony of empty PG seats raises an awkward question: Is India churning out more doctors than its system can accommodate — or is something deeper afoot?
The question has major implications for medical education policy, the delivery of health care, and the future careers of thousands of physicians.
Decoding the Jipmer-NEET-PG Seat Vacancy Issue & Other Problems Saints (are) No Wonders Everyone Can Perform!
NEET-PG is the only entrance examination for MBBS graduates, through which they can get admission to areas of specialization like medicine, surgery, pediatrics, and radiology. Undergraduate medical seats are filled swiftly every year via NEET UG; the same is not true with postgraduate admissions.
Even after several rounds of counseling, thousands of PG seats, especially in private and deemed medical colleges, are lying vacant even after Round-2. This pattern has repeated itself in the past few years and is getting more pronounced.
Are There Too Many Doctors, or Too Few Jobs?
At a superficial or first reading, unoccupied PG seats point to an oversupply. The truth is more complex.
Specialists in shortages in India: 2.1 Introduction In India, the scarcity of specialists includes the following areas:
Rural and semi-urban healthcare centers
Government hospitals
Critical care and public health efforts
Importantly, in the context of global health, India still doesn’t quite cut it as per World Health Organization (WHO) standards (need more specialist doctors). That suggests the problem is not too many doctors but structural and economic mismatches.
Expensive PG Medical Education
Private medical colleges play a predominant role in contributing to vacant seats , and steep tuition fee is one of their major cause. Most of these seats are accompanied by fees in lakhs — or even crores — a sum that the majority of MBBS graduates can’t afford.
Fresh doctors are already heavily invested in during undergrad and an internship. How many want to go for the costly PG seats, which have financial liability and uncertain returns?
Specialty Preference Imbalance
Another big driver is lopsided demand among specialties.
High-demand branches:
Radiology
Dermatology
Orthopedics
General Medicine
Low-demand branches (where all excess vacancies arise):
Anatomy
Physiology
Community Medicine
Microbiology
This distorted preference results in some specialties being overpopulated while others have persistently high vacancy rates in public health and academic medicine.
Regulatory Perspective: NMC’s Role
The country’s medical education is overseen by the National Medical Commission (NMC), which has increased PG seats to beat the shortage of specialists.
But those opposing the move say that increasing seats without corresponding reforms (such as limiting fees, matching stipend with NEET PG) has only added to the lack of staff.
It appears policy intent and ground realities are not in sync at present.
Career Uncertainty and Alternative Paths
Nowadays, many MBBS are not doing PG specialisation and instead opting for alternate career lines like:-
Hospital administration
Public health
Medical research
Healthcare startups
International opportunities
Migrant medical graduates (IMGs) looking at working abroad frequently consult the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS) as an international quality indicator for recognition.
As a result, pressure on PG seats in some of the disciplines has also come down due to this diversification of career options.
Discrepancy Between the Demand and Training of Healthcare
India does have a shortage of specialists, but the demand is spread unevenly:
The specialists are drawn towards the private hospitals in urban areas due to higher pay
Rural postings have limited financial and professional rewards
Consequently, PG seats attached to colleges with poor exposure, patient load or placement prospects are less appealing for aspirants.
Impact on NEET-PG Aspirants
For hopefuls, the vacancy paradox is simply baffling:
Low cut-offs, but less for ‘desirable’ seats
Concern about being tied into low-return specialisations
Uncertainty about long-term career stability
Analytical instruments such as neet rank predictor are there in the prep bucket to monitor reality and not take hasty decisions during counselling. The systemic problems, however, can't be solved at the individual level:enescecoganey.
Is the Answer Fewer Seats or Better Reforms?
Most experts now concur that cutting down on PG seats will be counterproductive. Instead, reforms should focus on:
Rationalizing PG fees
Improving working conditions and stipends
Strengthening district-level hospitals
Incentivizing less preferred specialties
Training for public health needs
In the absence of such efforts, the gap among seat vacancies will remain even as health care needs continue to rise.
Conclusion
Just because 18,000+ PG medical seats are vacant after NEET-PG Round-2, does not mean that India has too many doctors. Rather, it underscores an underlying structural tension among education prices, incentives for careers and specialties, and health care requirements.
As India tries to bolster its health-care structure, policy-makers, regulators, and institutes need to go beyond the numbers game and ensure that the reforms in medical education are sustainable, equitable, and demand-driven. Only such PG seats can be converted into the hands of skilled specialists serving the country at place which need them most.
