A Young Doctor Is Gone. The Warning Is for All of Us
A note on the AIIMS Jodhpur incident — and a call for a system that values the people who hold it together.
There are some deaths that should stop us in our tracks. The alleged suicide of Dr. Rajanresh, a resident doctor in the Department of Anaesthesiology and Critical Care at AIIMS Jodhpur, on 22 September 2026, inside the hospital campus, is one of them. It is heartbreaking. It is deeply disturbing. And it should not be allowed to pass quietly.
From what we have learned, Dr. Rajanresh was unwell — and yet, he had reportedly been working for more than 36 hours at a stretch. He was carrying an unbearable workload and immense stress. These claims must be examined through an independent and impartial inquiry. The truth must come out, fully and without pressure.
But this is not just one doctor’s tragedy. It forces us to ask a question we have avoided for far too long: Why do we keep pushing young resident doctors at AIIMS, PGIMER, and other reputed medical institutions across India into such long, punishing, and stressful duties?
We need an immediate high-level independent inquiry into what happened at AIIMS Jodhpur. But we also need a nationwide, time-bound review of resident doctors’ working conditions in all major medical institutions — their duty hours, consecutive shifts, workload, staff availability, mandatory rest, and institutional mental health support.
Excessive working hours do not only put doctors’ health and lives at risk. They also threaten patient safety and the quality of medical care. An exhausted doctor is not just a tired doctor. An exhausted doctor is a danger to themselves — and sometimes, without meaning to be, to others.
We appeal to the Union Health Minister, Shri J. P. Nadda, to order a high-level independent inquiry into the AIIMS Jodhpur incident. We also urge him to ensure a time-bound national review of resident doctors’ working conditions at AIIMS, PGIMER, and other major medical institutions, followed by real, necessary reforms.
A young doctor’s death must never fade into another statistic. It must become the turning point where the system looks at itself with honesty and commits to change said Dr. Kuldeep Singh Tanwar, Former General Secretary, BGVS; Member, Central Committee, All India People’s Science Network.
