India produces 30,000 doctors, 18,000 specialists, 30,000 AYUSH doctors, 54,000
nurses, 15,000 ANMs and 36,000 pharmacists annually
The standing committee on health for the 12 five year plan
has proposed adding 18,000 additional undergraduate medical seats, and nearly 11,000
post-graduate seats between 2012 and 2017.
In its report to the Union health ministry, exclusively available with TOI, the
panel has recommended for the increase of undergraduate medical seats from 41,569
to 66,000 and PG seats from 20,868 to 31,000. It has proposed setting up of 30 new
medical colleges with public financing in states that need them the most. It has
recommended setting up of 132 Auxiliary Nursing Midwifery (ANM) and 137 General
Nursing Midwifery (GNM) schools through public financing with a focus on under-serviced
areas and starting paramedical education courses in 149 government medical colleges
and paramedical institutions in 26 states. Trained and competent human resource,
the committee says, is the foundation of an effective healthcare system.
India produces 30,000 doctors, 18,000 specialists, 30,000 AYUSH doctors, 54,000
nurses, 15,000 ANMs and 36,000 pharmacists annually. Yet, geographic and rural-urban
imbalance exists in training and availability of human resource. Medical colleges
are unevenly spread across the states with wide disparities in the quality of education.
Only 193 districts of the total of 640 districts have a medical college the remaining
447 districts do not have any medical colleges, the report says.
Against a World Health Organization recommended norm of 23/25 health workers
(doctors, nurses, midwives) per 10,000 population, India has 19 health workers
per 10,000 (doctors-6,nurses and midwives-13). The ministry has been told to orient
medical education to needs of the society, starting with examining the curriculum
of medical education so as to equip graduates to independently function as general
practitioners, possess hands-on skills, and be sensitive to issues like social determinants
of health, equity, essential medicines and generics.
Courtesy: Times of India
