Allied and healthcare professionals database portal launched

New Delhi:  The Union Health Ministry launched a web portal which will act as a robust data repository of allied and healthcare workers, help in bringing transparency and track the number of such professionals.

More than 3,000 such professionals have already registered on the Allied and Healthcare Professionals database portal during the testing phase.

Allied and health professionals include anesthesiologists, assistant anesthesia technicians, art therapists or art psychotherapists, audiologists and cardiovascular technologists, to name a few.

Union Health Secretary Preeti Sudan, at the launch of the portal, said India enjoys a demographic dividend of more than 65 percent youth below the age of 35 years and the government is eager to providing them a strong foundation for continued and sustainable growth.

She said the country is facing an increasing burden of lifestyle diseases and ailments, and needs better standards and appropriate frameworks for professionals providing health services to the people.

"As a prerequisite to achieve this, the health ministry aims at putting in place a robust data repository of healthcare workers. Unless the existing manpower capacity is mapped adequately, successful policies cannot be framed.

"This portal is a provisional measure taken by the ministry to track and reach out to all allied and healthcare professionals in the country till such a time that a statutory body is established," Sudan said.

According to an official statement, the portal has a capacity of capturing data of more than 10 lakh allied and healthcare professionals.

"It will help the government in tracking the number of professionals and streams of allied and healthcare professions in the country.

"It may further prove helpful in expediting the envisaged processes like licensing of professionals, workforce policy planning and bringing transparency in the system by maintaining standards of educational and clinical practice," the statement said.

Allied and healthcare professionals can visit the online portal and provide basic personal, qualification and professional information.

The portal will then send an auto-generated email to the registered email of the applicants for verification and will provide an enrolment reference number for further usage.

They can subsequently login to the portal using the credentials received in the email and edit the information, upload educational degree among other things, the statement said.