AIIMS Full Form
All India Institute of Medical Sciences
What does AIIMS stand for? A medical term, explained.
AIIMS Full Form in English, letter by letter
AIIMS stands for All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a group of central government medical institutes led by AIIMS New Delhi.
AIIMS Full Form in Indian Languages
Few Indian acronyms carry the weight of AIIMS, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, the best-known group of government medical colleges and hospitals. Here is the name in six languages.
What AIIMS Stands For
AIIMS stands for All India Institute of Medical Sciences. It is a group of autonomous public medical institutions run by the central government, each combining a teaching hospital, a medical college and a research centre on one campus. The first, AIIMS New Delhi, was established in 1956 under the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Act.
The Delhi institute received significant foreign assistance in its early years and became the country's reference point for advanced treatment, research and medical education. Its graduates hold senior positions across Indian medicine. The words "All India" are literal in practice: students are admitted from every state, and patients travel from across the country for treatment.
The Act also gave the institute academic and administrative autonomy. AIIMS sets its own curricula, conducts its own examinations and recruits its own faculty.
How AIIMS Expanded Across India
For decades there was only one AIIMS. That changed under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), announced in 2003, which set up six new institutes at Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh. More were added later at Mangalagiri, Nagpur, Kalyani, Bathinda, Bilaspur, Deoghar, Gorakhpur, Rajkot, Guwahati, Vijaypur (Jammu), Bibinagar, Madurai and elsewhere, with Awantipora in Kashmir, Rewari in Haryana and Darbhanga in Bihar at various stages of construction.
Each new AIIMS aims to give its region a tertiary-care hospital so that patients need not travel to Delhi. The newer campuses are still maturing, and faculty strength, specialties and patient volumes vary. The total number operating depends on the date and on how a campus is counted, so check the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for the latest list.
MBBS seats at the newer AIIMS are filled through central counselling by the Medical Counselling Committee, and not through state quotas.
Getting In: NEET-UG and INICET
MBBS admission at every AIIMS now runs through NEET-UG. The separate AIIMS MBBS entrance examination was discontinued and merged into NEET-UG from 2020. Because AIIMS sits at the top of most applicants' preference lists, its MBBS cutoffs are among the highest in the country, and the New Delhi campus is the hardest to get into.
Postgraduate admission (MD, MS, DM and MCh) goes through INICET, the Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test, conducted by AIIMS New Delhi for itself and other institutes of national importance such as JIPMER and PGIMER. Nursing and paramedical courses have their own AIIMS-conducted entrance tests.
What an AIIMS Seat Actually Offers
The fees are famously low: the MBBS course costs only a few thousand rupees a year in tuition and related charges, and hostel fees are nominal, which makes it the most affordable medical education in India by a wide margin. Alongside this comes exposure to very high patient loads and complex cases.
AIIMS New Delhi has ranked first in the medical category of the NIRF rankings in recent years. That combination of low cost, clinical exposure and reputation is why competition is so fierce.
Beyond MBBS, the institutes run super-speciality residencies in DM and MCh, nursing and allied health courses and doctoral research programmes, which is how the system keeps feeding specialists back into public hospitals.
AIIMS for patients: what to know before you travel
Most patients reach AIIMS by outpatient registration, which is cheap but crowded, and many are referred from district hospitals. Registration can be done online through the ORS (Online Registration System) at the Delhi campus. Carry previous reports, an ID, and referral papers where available.
Waiting times at the Delhi campus can be long, so for a non-urgent problem it is often quicker to start at a nearer AIIMS, a state medical college or a district hospital. Emergency and trauma care runs round the clock at the campuses that have the facility. Beware of touts who offer to arrange appointments for money, since registration is open to all.
AIIMS explains both an institution and its reputation: government-run, research-driven and affordable. For students it is the toughest seat to win, and for patients it is a place of last resort and best hope for serious illness.
AIIMS Full Form: Common Questions
What is the full form of AIIMS?
All India Institute of Medical Sciences, a group of autonomous medical colleges and hospitals run by the central government. The oldest is AIIMS New Delhi, established in 1956.
How many AIIMS are there in India?
More than twenty have been approved, and most are partly or fully functional, but the exact number of working campuses depends on the date and source. Delhi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh are the oldest, and newer ones continue to open.
How do you get admission to AIIMS for MBBS?
Through NEET-UG. The separate AIIMS MBBS entrance exam was merged into NEET-UG from 2020. Seats are allotted through central counselling, and AIIMS cutoffs are among the highest.
What is INICET?
INICET, Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test, is the entrance for MD, MS, DM and MCh courses at AIIMS and other institutes of national importance such as JIPMER and PGIMER. It is conducted by AIIMS New Delhi.
Is studying at AIIMS really that cheap?
Yes. Tuition and related charges for MBBS are only a few thousand rupees a year, and hostel charges are nominal. Central government funding keeps costs low, which is one reason AIIMS sees such intense competition.
How can a patient get an appointment at AIIMS?
Register as a new patient at the OPD counter or through the hospital's online registration system, pay the small registration fee, and collect a unique health ID (UHID). A referral letter is helpful but is not always required.