THE MINISTER OF HEALTH & FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI GHULAM NABI AZAD)
(a) & (b) Assessment of human resources for health is a continuous process
and augmenting human resources for health, particularly in rural areas of
the country is one of the focal areas of the Government. As per the current
estimation, the doctor-population ratio works out to 1:2000 approximately.
In addition there are more than six lakh practitioners of Indian system of
Medicine and Homoeopathy. Similarly, the nurse-population ratio is 1:1130
and the doctor-nurse ratio is around 1:1.5.
(c) Currently, there are 335 medical colleges in the country for teaching
modern system of medicine with annual intake of 41,569 who add up to the
existing medical manpower. The current training capacity of nurses in the
country is around 1.75 lakh per annum.
(d) & (e) In the past, the Central Government constituted various Committees
to inter alia assess the requirement of human resources for the health sector.
On the basis of these recommendations and consultations with Medical Council
of India and other experts, the Government has taken following steps to
facilitate setting up more medical colleges and nursing institutions, improve
the doctor/nurse- population ratio in general and also correct the imbalance
in the distribution of doctors/nurses across the country:
# Rs. 1350 crore have been earmarked for providing financial assistance
for strengthening and upgradation of State Government medical colleges.
# Six AIIMS like institutions are being established in under-served States.
# Upgrading 13 existing Government Medical Colleges/Institutions in ten States.
# Liberalization of Medical Council of India’s norms/regulations related to
land, bed strength, etc. to enable opening up of new medical colleges.
# The ratio of post graduate medical teacher to the student has been
relaxed from 1:1 to 1:2 which will result in availability of more medical
specialists.
# Financial support is provided under NRHM for engagement of staff on
contractual basis. Multi-skilling of doctors to overcome the shortage of
specialists, provision of incentives to serve in rural areas, improved
accommodation arrangements.
# It has been proposed in the scheme of development of nursing services
for upgradation of existing schools of nursing into colleges of nursing.
