With 13.08 lakh Allopathy, 5.65 lakh AYUSH Doctors, India's Doctor population ratio better than WHO standard: Health Ministry data

New Delhi: The Minister of State in the Union Health Ministry, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar  recently informed the Lok Sabha that altogether 13,08,009 registered allopathic doctors, 5.65 lakh AYUSH practitioners, 34.33 registered nursing personnel, and 13 lakh allied and healthcare professionals are catering to the Healthcare services in India.

In fact, the MoS Health stated before the Parliament that the doctor-population ratio in India is far better that the standard set by WHO. She mentioned, "Assuming 80% availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000."

She further informed the Lok Sabha about the huge increase in the number of medical seats in India since 2014. As per Dr. Pawar, the Undergraduate seats have increased from 51,348 before 2014 to 91927 seats. In case of Postgraduate medical seats, the seats have increased by 93% from 31,185 seats before 2014 to 60202 seats.

The Minister was responding to several queries seeking to know the details of allopathic doctors and nurses registered and their actual requirement in the States/UTs. Other questions also included if there is a shortage of doctors/nurses/other paramedics in the country, the vacant positions of healthcare professionals along with its impact in the country, doctor-patient, nurse-patient, hospitals bed-patient ratio, government's plans for filling up all vacant PG medical seats and increasing the number of medical colleges and seats in the allied institutes, any proposal for introducing a national policy for assigning mandatory rural service to the doctors, etc.

Also Read:Total MBBS pool of seats up to 89,000

Responding to these queries, the MoS Health Dr. Pawar referred to the information provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC) indicating the total number of registered allopathic doctors as on June, 2022.

Referring to the NMC data, the Minister mentioned in her reply, "As per information provided by National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with the State Medical Councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) as on June, 2022. Assuming 80% availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000. Also, there are 34.33 lakh registered nursing personnel and 13 lakh Allied and Healthcare Professionals in the country."

She also addressed the question regarding the vacant PG medical seats and mentioned, "To ensure that PG medical seats are not left vacant, the Government has reduced the benchmark percentile for admission in PG Degree & Diploma courses and the counselling for all India quota PG (Broad Specialty) seats has been increased to four rounds from the year 2021."

"For making rapid growth in the number of allied medical seats in the country, the Government has enacted National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021 and an Interim Commission has been notified under the provisions of NCAHP Act, 2021," the MoS Health added.

Providing the data regarding the increase of UG and PG medical seats since 2014, Dr. Pawar informed the Parliament, "The Government has taken following steps to further increase the availability of doctors in the country, particularly in underserved regions. The number of UG seats have increased from 51,348 before 2014 to 91927 seats as on date which is an increase of 79%. The numbers of PG seats have increased by 93% from 31,185 seats before 2014 to 60202 seats."

While addressing the availability of sufficient number of beds in the Government hospitals, the Minister clarified that the primary responsibility for administering health personnel and ensuring sufficient availability of beds lies with the concerned State Government. In this case she referred to the data published by the National Health Profile (NHP and mentioned, "As per the information published in National Health Profile (NHP), 2021, the details of beds State/ UT wise may be seen at page No. 417, Table No. 6.2.2 with the help of link namely https://www.cbhidghs.nic.in/showfile.php?lid=1160."

She also mentioned the steps taken by the Government for increasing the doctor-patient ratio. The steps taking by the government are as follows:

"i. Centrally Sponsored Scheme for the establishment of the new medical college by upgrading district/ referral hospital under which 157 new medical colleges have been approved and 72 are already functional.

ii. Centrally Sponsored Scheme for strengthening/ up gradation of existing State Government/Central Government Medical Colleges to increase MBBS and PG seats.

iii. Central Sector Scheme for upgradation of Government Medical Colleges by the construction of Super Specialty Blocks. A total of 75 projects have been approved and 55 have been completed.

iv. Under the Central Sector Scheme for setting up of new AIIMS, 22 AIIMS have been approved. Undergraduate courses have started in 19 AIIMS.

v. Relaxation in the norms for setting up of Medical College in terms of the requirement for faculty, staff, bed strength and other infrastructure.

vi. DNB qualification has been recognized for appointment as faculty to take care of faculty shortage.

vii. Enhancement of age limit for appointment/ extension/ re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/ director in medical colleges upto 70 years.

viii. The tenure of Senior Residency for appointment of Assistant Professor have reduced from three year to one year.

ix. Under the District Residency Programme (DRP), all the doctors admitted to PG courses from 2022 onwards, to serve in the district hospitals for three months mandatorily."

As per the MoS Health, the Government has also taken necessary steps for increasing the Nurse-patient ratio in India. In this regard, the following steps have been taken by the Government.

"(i) For Nursing Educational Programmes Student patient ratio has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:3.

(ii) The land requirement for Nursing Educational Institutes from 3 acres has been relaxed to construct building of 54,000 sq. ft. for School/College of Nursing including Hostel.

(iii) To open GNM and B.Sc. (Nursing) programme 100 bedded parent hospital is essential since 2013-2014. However, this is relaxed for hilly and tribal areas.

(iv) Relaxed norms for teaching faculty to start B.Sc. (N) Programme.

(v) Super speciality Hospital can start M.Sc. (N) without having under graduate programme.

(vi) Maximum of 100 seats will be granted to the institutions for B.Sc.(N)/GNM programmes which are having parent hospital with 300 beds without insisting on Medical College.

(vii) Distance from school to hospital has been relaxed.

(viii) Eligibility Criteria for admission to nursing programmes relaxed."

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/au930-181603.pdf

Also Read: Health Ministry counts 5.65 Lakh AYUSH doctors, and 13,01,319 allopathic doctors in India