Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh needs 77,000 doctors to cater to its citizens but at present only 22,000 doctors are working in the state. The state has 1 doctor for every 3,400 citizens, a grossly insufficient figure when compared to the WHO standard of having at least 1 doctor per 1,000 people.
Another factor troubling the state's health services is the pace at which doctors are leaving government services for want of better opportunities. Data from Madhya Pradesh Medical Council shows that the state has 19 government medical colleges with 51 district hospitals, 66 civil hospitals, 335 community health centres, 1170 primary health centres, 9192 health sub-centers, and 49,864 village health centres.
To reconfirm the number of doctors in the state, the Council recently called for the re-registration of doctors. The last date for the re-registration was extended several times, however, only around 22,000 doctors turned up. Interestingly, the council, before the re-registration began, assumed that there were around 59,000 doctors in the state.
The alarming situation is further exacerbated by the government's failure to fill up the vacant posts in medical services. Out of the 3,278 posts of health department specialists, 2,249 are vacant. Besides, 91 specialists are retiring this year. Similarly, 1677 posts of medical officers are vacant. In medical colleges, 13 posts of deans and 14 posts of superintendents are also vacant.
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Apart from doctors leaving the state or preferring private practice over government service, the lack of medical colleges and less number of seats are also among the reasons for the state's poor performance in providing health services to everyone. In the last ten years, only eight new medical colleges could be started.
Compared to Madhya Pradesh's 19 government medical colleges, there are more than 50 medical colleges in states including Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. The state has a total of 756 Post Graduate seats out of which 384 are for MD, 233 for MS, eight for MCH, nine for DM, and 122 for diploma. The number is as high as 3,500 in some other states.
The shortage of doctors in Madhya Pradesh is a major issue. Maharashtra (173884 doctors), Karnataka (120261), Andhra Pradesh (100587), Gujarat (66944), Uttar Pradesh (77549), and Rajasthan (43338) are way ahead of it.
