Ujjain: At present more than 50 per cent of medical personnel currently practising allopathic medicine do not have medical qualifications, this puts rural patients at risk given the high density of doctors in urban areas and India’s poor doctor population ratio of 1:1456 compared with the World Health Organisation (WHO) standards of 1:1000.
Consequently, uneven distribution of qualified doctors causes rural and poor population of patients’ denial of good quality of healthcare leaving them in the clutches of quacks.
During a talk with Free Press Federation of Hospital Administrators executive member Dr Naresh Purohit while referring his research report titled
“Lot Needs To Be Done To Improve Healthcare System” which he presented recently at a national seminar on “Recent Status Of Healthcare System” at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode told that India needs around 20 lakh doctors to keep the population in the pink of health, but has only half the number. India produces around 30,000 medical graduates every year, which means that we will not be able to close the gap in 40 years.
According to the WHO, Indian-trained doctors constitute 9 percent of all registered doctors in the UK and form the largest group of foreign trained doctors.
There are more than 50,000 Indian doctors serving half the UK population. Dr Purohit observed while presenting his report that many medical graduates often the best of the lot-go abroad for further studies and never return.
According to a recent WHO study, more than 3,000 Indian doctors had migrated overseas in the last three years. There was a 40 percent increase in the period from 2015 to 2017 when more than 5,000 doctors left India.
“The wide gap in comprehensive primary health services for many rural areas need to be filled through competent mid-level healthcare providers who are adequately trained, technologically enabled and legally empowered.” averred Dr Purohit.
He said that there is a lot that needs to be done to improve the Indian healthcare system. He suggested some targets that have to be achieved so as to improve the health of the nation: accessible and affordable nutritious food to people of all sections of the society;
sanitary facilities and cleanliness has to be ensured by constructing enough toilets and educating people on the need to use them; enough primary health centers must be constructed even in rural areas; more medical colleges must be established and doctors need to be incentivised to pursue practice in rural areas;
enough healthcare professionals must be available; there is an absolute dearth of qualified medical professionals especially in rural areas and a large number of tertiary care centers can be started which can deliver affordable treatment to the masses.
