Doctor-Patient Ratio in India Is Better Than WHO’s Standard: Centre

Giving details about the medical college-related infrastructure, Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel said that there is an increase of 88 per cent in medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 731 at present. There is also an increase of 118 per cent in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,12,112 as of now and an increase of 133 per cent in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 72,627 as of now.

Representational Image (File Photo)

Published : Aug 2, 2024, 6:39 PM IST

New Delhi:The Centre on Friday said that the doctor-patient ratio in India is better than the WHO-prescribed 1:1000 standard.

As per information provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,86,136 allopathic doctors registered with the State Medical Councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) as of July, 2024.

“Assuming 80 per cent availability of registered allopathic doctors and around 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is around 1:836 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000,” said Minister of State for Health Anupriya Patel in the Lok Sabha.

She said that there are 731 medical colleges in the country with an annual intake of 1,12,112 MBBS seats as of now. “Further, there are 72,627 PG seats as of now,” she said.

Patel said that the government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats. “There is an increase of 88 per cent in Medical Colleges from 387 before 2014 to 731. Further, there is an increase of 118 per cent in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,12,112 as of now and an increase of 133 per cent in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 72,627 as of now,” she said.

Elaborating on the measures and steps taken by the Government to augment the medical education facilities and to improve the medical standards in the country, she said that there is a centrally sponsored scheme (CSS) for the establishment of new medical colleges by upgrading district and referral hospital under which 157 new medical colleges have been approved, out of which 109 are already functional.

“CSS for strengthening and upgradation of existing State Government and Central Government medical colleges to increase the number of MBBS (UG) and PG seats, under which support has been provided for increase of 4977 MBBS seats in 83 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 5972.20 crore, 4058 PG seats in phase-I in 72 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 1498.43 crore and 4000 PG seats in phase-II in 65 colleges with an approved cost of Rs 4478.25 crore,” Patel said.