India has a doctor-population ratio of 1:811. The information was shared by the government during the Parliament session on Tuesday. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Union Health Minister J P Nadda said there are 13,88,185 registered allopathic doctors in India and 7,51,768 registered practitioners in the AYUSH system of medicine.
"Assuming that 80 per cent of registered practitioners in both the allopathic and AYUSH systems are available, the doctor-population ratio in the country is estimated to be 1:811," he cited, adding that the government has taken several steps to improve/increase the availability of doctors in underserved, rural and tribal areas.
During the span of the last 11 years (since 2014), the number of medical colleges has gone up to 818 from 378, the union minister informed. With this hike, there has been an increase in the number of UG seats from 51,348 to 1,28,875 and PG seats from 31,185 to 82,059 since 2014.
Under the centrally-sponsored scheme for the "Establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospital", 137 new medical colleges are functional of the 157 approved, and the Family Adoption Programme (FAP) has been incorporated into the MBBS curriculum to provide equitable healthcare access to the rural population, the minister cited.
The FAP involves medical colleges adopting villages and MBBS students adopting families within these villages. This enables regular follow-up of the adopted families for vaccination, growth monitoring, menstrual hygiene, iron-folic acid supplementation, healthy lifestyle practices, nutrition, vector control and medication adherence, Nadda said, and added that it helps to educate/raise awareness among the families about the health programmes launched by the Centre.
Under the District Residency Programme of the National Medical Commission (NMC), second and third year PG students of medical colleges are posted in district hospitals, the minister informed the House. Besides, a hard-area allowance is provided to specialist doctors for serving in rural and remote areas and for their residential quarters, he noted.
Under the National Health Mission, states are allowed to offer a negotiable salary to attract specialists, including flexibility in strategies such as "You Quote We Pay", Nadda said.
Further, the Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practise Medicine Regulations framed by the NMC deal with the temporary registration of foreign medical practitioners, allowing foreign-qualified and foreign-registered doctors (non-Indian citizens) to practise in India for specific purposes, such as training, fellowship, research, observership, expert visits, voluntary service or approved postgraduate and super-speciality courses.
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