FAIMA urges smarter planning for PG seats 

The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has raised concerns over the continued vacancy of postgraduate medical seats and the repeated reduction of qualifying cut-offs in NEET-PG, calling for structural reforms instead of what it termed a dilution of standards.

The issue gained attention after the National Board of Examinations (NBE), in a notice dated January 13, 2026, reduced the minimum qualifying percentile for the third round of NEET-PG 2025–26 counselling. The revised percentiles were lowered to the 7th percentile for General/EWS, 5th for General PwBD, and 0 percentile for SC/ST/OBC (including PwBD), with corresponding cut-off scores dropping significantly. 

The Health Ministry informed the Parliament that the reduction was aimed at ensuring that precious PG seats do not remain vacant. The government has also told the Supreme Court that NEET-PG is not an entry-level examination like MBBS but a filtering mechanism for allocating limited postgraduate seats among already qualified doctors. 

However, FAIMA stated that vacant seats reflect deeper structural problems rather than a lack of interest among candidates. The association pointed to rapid seat expansion without proportional growth in faculty strength, patient load, clinical exposure, and teaching infrastructure. It noted that many unfilled seats are located in remote regions, institutions with irregular stipends, excessive workloads, or weak academic cultures.

The body also flagged arbitrary bond policies, heavy financial penalties, and opaque, delayed counselling processes as factors discouraging candidates. It warned that repeated cut-off reductions could compromise specialist training quality, increase burnout among residents, and potentially affect patient safety and the global credibility of Indian PG degrees.

FAIMA has called for rational seat planning aligned with healthcare needs, uniform stipends and humane bond policies, transparent and time-bound counselling with real-time vacancy tracking, independent quality audits before seat expansion, and strengthening of faculty and infrastructure to address the root causes of the crisis.