India may eliminate its shortage of doctors in less than seven years, as per estimates drawn up by the Union Health Ministry. As the country rolls out Ayushman Bharat and includes 50 crore people in the medical net, it is imperative that the shortage — of approximately four lakh doctors — is reduced and fast.
“We currently have about 9.3 lakh doctors. Taking an average doctor’s professional life as 40 years, our calculations suggest that 23,000 doctors go out of the medical workforce every year. This means that of the 80,000 MBBS seats we currently have, there is a net addition every year of 57,000. Even if the seats remain at their present levels, which they will not, given that in the last three years alone we have added 30,000 seats, we will wipe out the current deficit in less than seven years,” said Arun Singhal, Special Secretary in the ministry.
There is also the additional challenge of ensuring equitable distribution of doctors, which the ministry hopes would be tackled partly by the locations of the new medical colleges, states’ initiatives, spread of medical infrastructure to underserviced areas after Ayushman Bharat and an eventual saturation of the urban market that will force doctors to tier II and III cities and villages eventually.
Read more in a report by Abantika Ghosh published in The Indian Express... (Link given below)
