ESIC hospitals: one table in the answer nets 718 specialist vacancies for 2025, the next lists 881; at 16 hospitals specialists work against no sanctioned post

What was asked

The Lok Sabha asked the Ministry of Labour and Employment for the number of Employees’ State Insurance (ESI) hospitals and dispensaries since 2023; the sanctioned and filled posts of doctors, specialists, nurses and paramedical staff in ESI hospitals, with vacancy rates, year by year and state by state; the insured persons and beneficiaries; the funds sanctioned and used on ESI medical services; and the hospitals and dispensaries where specialist posts have been vacant for more than one year.

The ministry answered on 23 March 2026, with five annexures from ESIC headquarters. Annexure II gives, for each hospital run by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC), the sanctioned, in-position and vacant posts in four cadres for 2023, 2024 and 2025. Annexure V lists the hospitals where specialist posts are “vacant for more than one year”.

Two totals for the same vacancies

Add up the specialist vacancy column of Annexure II for 2025 and the total is 718. Add up Annexure V and it is 881: 812 specialist and 69 super-specialist posts at 45 hospitals. Hospital by hospital, the two agree: at each of the 45 hospitals in Annexure V, its two figures add up to the 2025 vacancy in Annexure II.

The 163 between them sits in 16 rows of Annexure II. For 2025, each of those hospitals shows no sanctioned specialist post at all, yet specialists in position, 163 in all, so the table prints its vacancy as a negative number. Basaidarapur in Delhi had 39 sanctioned specialist posts in 2024 and 13 specialists in position; for 2025 it shows 0 posts, 18 specialists and a vacancy of -18. Added into a total, those negative rows cancel 163 vacancies at other hospitals.

The same 16 hospitals had 441 sanctioned specialist posts in 2024. The answer does not say why none is shown for 2025, or against which posts the 163 specialists in position are counted.

Fewer specialists in position

Of the hospitals in Annexure II, 60 have a row for all three years. At those, specialists in position numbered 549 in 2023, 540 in 2024 and 461 in 2025. General duty medical officers (GDMOs) in position at the same hospitals rose from 1,173 to 1,419. In 2025, eight hospitals had specialist posts sanctioned and not one specialist in position: Tinsukia (18 posts), Korba (17 posts), Raigarh (18 posts), Bhilai (17 posts), Surat (5 posts), Ompura (17 posts), Gorimedu (Puducherry) (24 posts) and Kota (24 posts).

What the answer does not give

The question asked about ESI hospitals. Annexure I counts 166 of them: 62 run by ESIC and 104 under ESIS. The staffing table and the list of long vacancies cover ESIC hospitals only. There is no row for any of the 104 ESIS hospitals, and the answer does not say why.

The question asked for vacancy rates; the answer gives none. It gives posts and people, from which a rate could be worked out, but not for the 16 hospitals with no sanctioned specialist post in 2025. The staffing table is by hospital and by calendar year, not by state.

Asked for the hospitals and dispensaries where specialist posts have been vacant for more than one year, the answer lists 45 hospitals and no dispensary. Each figure it gives equals the hospital’s whole 2025 specialist vacancy in Annexure II. Surat, Ompura and Gorimedu (Puducherry) are in the list, but Annexure II has rows for them only in 2025. The answer does not say how long any post has been vacant.

Adds up, and where it does not

In every one of the 185 rows of Annexure II, sanctioned minus in position equals the printed vacancy, in all four cadres; the negative vacancies follow from the figures entered. Three entries are out of line with the rest of the answer.

• The Gulbarga row for 2025 is identical, figure for figure, to the row below it for Gulbarga’s dental college: no doctor posts, 3 nursing posts and 44 paramedical posts. In 2024, Gulbarga had 11 specialist and 50 GDMO posts and 248 nursing posts sanctioned. The answer does not say whether the 2025 row was repeated in error.
• Annexure V puts Ramdarbar, with 15 specialist posts vacant, under Punjab. Annexure II puts it under Chandigarh, with the same 15.
• Annexure I counts one ESIC hospital in Jammu and Kashmir; Annexure II has rows for two, Ompura and Bari Brahmana.

In 2025, 15 hospitals also show more GDMOs in position than sanctioned posts. The answer does not explain any of these.

The money

Annexure IV gives the budget and the spending on ESI medical services. In 2024-25 the budget was Rs 13,773.04 crore and the spending Rs 15,515.06 crore, Rs 1,742.02 crore more. Of the 29 rows with a budget of their own, spending was above it in 24. The answer does not say how the excess was met.

Got it right

The answer gives posts and people, hospital by hospital, cadre by cadre, for three years. In every row the arithmetic holds, and Annexure V agrees with Annexure II at all 45 hospitals it lists. Annexure I adds up to its printed totals across and down, as do all six columns of Annexure III and all four of Annexure IV, and a note explains why Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur have no budget of their own. The number of hospitals rose from 161 in 2023 to 166 in 2026 and of dispensaries from 1,574 to 1,603. Insured persons rose from 3,42,97,410 in 2022-23 to 3,84,35,880 in 2024-25. Of the hospitals with specialist posts sanctioned in 2025, Peenya in Karnataka had the largest share filled: 24 of 38.

Oquilia’s audit of doctor vacancies found six answers on government doctors that gave a link and no number. This one gives the numbers.

Every ESIC hospital, 2025

How we did this

• Source: the Ministry of Labour and Employment’s answer to Lok Sabha Unstarred Question 4930, answered on 23 March 2026, part (a) and Annexures I to V.
• All rows were read from the answer’s Word file by a script and checked against its PDF. Annexures I, III and IV were summed against their printed totals and match; Annexure II has no totals, and every row was checked for sanctioned minus in position equal to vacancy. Each Annexure V row was matched to its Annexure II hospital.
• “Specialists in position” over time is compared only across the 60 hospitals with a row in all three years. Spending over budget counts the 29 rows of Annexure IV with a 2024-25 budget of their own and a spending figure; Annexure IV joins West Bengal and Sikkim in one row.
• We searched the Lok Sabha’s index of answers after 23 March 2026 for later answers on ESI and read those that might give staffing figures; none gives hospital-wise posts or vacancies.
• Download the data: esic-hospital-staff-2023-2025.csv. Our method and labels are on the Data Audit method page.

Questions

Corrections

No corrections so far. If any figure here is wrong, send the correcting document to editor@oquilia.com and we will correct it and record the change on this page.