India is short of 6 lakh doctors!

It is reported that India faces an acute shortage of manpower in healthcare sector. The shortfall in the country is as follows:

Doctors – 6 lakhs; Dentists – 2 lakhs and Nurses - 10 lakhs

The patient – doctor ratio (number of doctors for 10,000 people) is 1 for India, while for developed countries, the ratio varies from 548 (USA), 209 (Canada) and 166 (UK). The situation in India is pathetic. However, about 60,000 India doctors are estimated to be working in these countries. For example: 5 in every 100 doctors in the US and UK are India physicians. The Health Ministry estimated that there should be one nurse for every 500 people. As such India needs 21 lakh nurses in 2007 and only 11 lakh nurses were available. The government is envisages the setting up of 6 AIIMS-like institutions and upgrading 13 existing medical institutes in the 11th Five-year Plan. Is this enough?

There are also very great demand for medical and paramedical personnel such as, lab technicians, radiologists and physiotherapists abroad and the “export” potential for such manpower is very high.

The only solution seems to be to open more and more colleges, particularly in smaller cities and towns. Government should open up the medical education sector for private participation, particularly big industrial houses. Public-private partnership should be encouraged. The question is: How to motivate bright students to take up medicine in comparison with other lucrative sectors like IT, Manufacturing and Finance? It takes about 10 years for a full post graduate super specialized course to complete and the earnings (except a few) of medical doctors are not tempting commercially.