India’s Doctor-Population Ratio 1:834: Minister

New Delhi: India’s doctor-population ratio is 1:834 assuming 80 per cent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday (December 12). According to the 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, Ms Pawar said in a written reply.

She said,

Assuming 80 per cent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834.

Ms Pawar also said there are 36.14 lakh nursing personnel in the country as on December, 2022 and the nurse-population ratio is 1:476.

Assuming 80 per cent availability of nursing personnel, the nurse- population ratio is 1:476.

In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Ms Pawar said the government has also increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats. She said,

There is an increase of 82 per cent in medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 706 as of now. Further, there is an increase of 112 per cent in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,08,940 as of now and PG seats have been increased to 127 per cent from 31,185 before 2014 to 70,674 as of now.

The Minister further informed about the government’s steps to increase the availability of doctors in the country.

1. Under the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for establishment of new medical college by upgrading district/referral hospital, 108 new medical colleges are already functional out of 157 approved.
2. Centrally Sponsored Scheme for strengthening/upgradation of existing State Government/Central Government Medical Colleges to increase MBBS and PG seats.
3. Under “Upgradation of Government Medical Colleges by construction of Super Specialty Blocks” of Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) scheme, a total of 75 projects have been approved, of which 64 projects are complete.
4. Under the Central Sector Scheme for setting up of new AIIMS, 22 AIIMS have been approved. Undergraduate courses have started in 19 of these.
5. Relaxation in the norms for setting up of Medical College in terms of requirement for faculty, staff, bed strength and other infrastructure.
6. DNB qualification has been recognised for appointment as faculty to take care of shortage of faculty.
7. Enhancement of age limit for appointment/extension/re-employment against posts of teachers/Dean/Principal/Director in medical colleges up to 70 years.

The Government has also taken the following steps to increase the nurses in the country:

1. Establishment of 157 nursing colleges have been announced in the budget speech 2023-24 in the 157 medical colleges approved since 2014.
2.  For Nursing Educational Programmes, Student patient ratio has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:3.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. Relaxed norms for teaching faculty to start B.Sc. (N) Programme.
6. 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.
7. Distance from school to hospital has been relaxed.
8. Eligibility Criteria for admission to nursing programmes relaxed.

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which in its Season 10 is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Ayushmann Khurrana. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In a world post COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental well-being, self-care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.