Registered Allopathic Doctors India: Amidst the rising number of patients in the country, the Union Health Minister has made a significant statement regarding the number of doctors. Let us tell you what he said.
Shortage of doctors in India
How Many Doctors Per Person In India: The number of diseases and patients is rapidly increasing worldwide. Some time ago, a report came out that antibiotics, which used to work easily, have now lost their effectiveness. Therefore, sufficient doctors are needed to manage the growing number of patients. However, new data released by the government has once again revealed the severe shortage of doctors in the country.
According to information provided in Parliament on Tuesday, there is only one doctor for every 811 people in India. In a written response to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda stated that there are 1,388,185 registered allopathic doctors in the country, while there are 751,768 registered doctors in the AYUSH system.
What did the Union Health Minister say?
He said that if it is assumed that only 80 percent of doctors, both allopathic and AYUSH, are actively available, then the doctor-population ratio in the country stands at 1:811.
Nadda stated that medical education has expanded significantly in the past few years. Compared to 2014, the number of medical colleges has increased from 387 to 818 today. MBBS seats have increased from 51,348 to 128,875, and PG seats have increased from 31,185 to 82,059.
Necessary steps for availability of doctors
The Health Minister stated that the government has taken several steps to increase the availability of doctors in rural, backward, and tribal areas. Of the 157 new medical colleges linked to district hospitals under a central scheme, 137 have already been operationalized. Furthermore, a family adoption program has been incorporated into the MBBS curriculum.
Under this program, medical colleges adopt villages, and MBBS students regularly monitor families living in these villages. This ensures consistent follow-up on issues such as vaccination, nutrition, menstrual management, iron-folic acid supplementation, healthy lifestyles, malaria and dengue control, and adherence to medication regimens. Nadda explained that this also facilitates easy access to information about government health schemes.
Deployment of PG students
Under the NMC's District Residency Program, second- and third-year postgraduate students from medical colleges are being deployed to district hospitals. Specialist doctors working in rural and remote areas are also provided with hard-area allowances and government housing.
The minister also said that the new NMC rules allow foreign doctors to work in India on temporary registration and under special circumstances such as training, research, fellowship, voluntary service or super-speciality programmes.
