Every doc to have 2 nurses and one auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM)
India plans to fix the acute shortage of nurses by 2025.
The Planning Commission's high-level expert group on health has set a target to
have a minimum of two nurses and one auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM) for every available
allopathic doctor. Now, the nurse: doctor ratio in India is 1.05:1, and
that of nurses and midwives to a doctor is 1.53:1.
The group, headed by Dr. K. Srinath Reddy, in its latest report on universal health
coverage has recommended opening of 382 new nursing schools and 58 nursing colleges
in 216 underserved districts across 15 states.
It is estimated that there are 6.51 lakh nurses and 2.96 lakh ANMs a combined nurse
and ANM ratio of one per 1,277 populations. This is in comparison to one per 2,250
populations as estimated by the National Task Force for Nursing for the 11Five Year
Plan.
Existing nursing schools churn out 1.15 lakh additional nurses annually. This included
nursing schools for the General Nursing and Midwifery diploma and nursing colleges
for the Bachelor of Science (Nursing) degree. However, the figure is skewed across
states. The report, available with TOI, says some positive changes have been observed
over the past five years, with the addition of 539 nursing schools in 12 states
of Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh,
Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. Despite these
efforts, we have fallen short of requirements, to the extent that the National Rural
Health Mission has had to appoint far fewer nurses than required due to their non-availability
in many states. In 2010, only 57,450 of the required 2.76 lakh required nurses were
employed at primary and community health care centres, it added.
Implementation of the groups recommendations will make available an additional 7.8
lakh nurses and ANMs by 2017. During the 13 plan, more nursing schools and colleges
will be opened, adding 10.1 lakh nurses and ANMs from 2017 to 2022.
The need for specialized nurses has been felt in multiple clinical areas, including
operation theatres, chronic care, midwifery, ophthalmology, ICUs, cardio-thoracic,
and neurosurgery.
The group expects the target to be achieved in four phases 98 nursing schools and
15 nursing colleges in Phase A by 2015; 93 nursing schools and 14 nursing colleges
in Phase B by 2017 and another 191 nursing schools and 29 nursing colleges in Phase
C and D.
Courtesy: Times of India
