New Delhi: Being aware of the fact that there is a shortage of doctors in India’s rural areas, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) has advised states and UTs to implement transparent policies regarding posting and transfer of health care professionals in order to ensure rational deployment of employees.
Interestingly, the government has also increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats. In the last two years, the number of UG seats in Medical colleges has increased from 1,100 to 1,220 and PG seats have increased from 119 to 311 from 2018 to 2020.
Talking to ETV Bharat Dr Giridhar Gyani on Friday, director general of Association of Health Care Providers India (AHCPI) said that shortage of health care workers in India’s rural areas is a fact.
“If we look five years back, the condition was pathetic. We had less post-graduate seats and medical colleges...and now 70,000 students are coming up every year,” said Dr Gyani.
He admitted the fact that there is a shortage of specialist doctors in rural areas.
“Government is also taking good initiatives. The National Board of Examination has been allowed to run a two years diploma course, where the doctors can get specialist diplomas,” said Dr Gyani.
Officials in the health ministry said that the government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats.
Officials said that the shortage of doctors in public health facilities varies from State to State depending upon their policies and context. “In order to meet the shortage of doctors in rural areas, the States are encouraged to adopt flexible norms for engaging doctors for public health facilities,” an official said.
Financial support is also provided to States for providing performance-based incentives, hard area allowance, providing accommodation and transport facilities in rural and remote areas, etc for engaging doctors in the public health facilities.
“State and UTs have also been allowed to offer negotiable salaries to attract specialists including flexibility in strategies such as 'you quote, we pay". Financial support is also provided to States for providing performance-based incentives, providing accommodation and transport facilities in rural and remote areas, sponsoring training programmes etc to attract human resources to address the issue of shortage of doctors and specialists in the public health facilities,” officials said.
Admitting the fact that there’s a huge shortage of doctors, nurses, and medical beds in India, Minister of State for Health Ashwini Choubey said in 2019 that there was one doctor for every 1,457 people as per the country's current population (1.35 billion).
Interestingly, 75 per cent of the Indian population resides in rural areas, and still healthcare facilities concentrate in the urban areas.
In fact, the government is now also working upon e-health and e-medicine and other such technology-driven means to transform the rural health sector.
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