Government medical colleges are short of more than 3,000 doctors: Centre tells Parliament

The union health ministry released details of vacancies as on January 2023 and said “recruitment is carried out as per functional need”

Government medical colleges are short of more than 3,000 doctors: Centre tells Parliament
user

NH Digital

Central government hospitals across India are collectively short of over 3,000 doctors, the Union health ministry told Parliament on Tuesday.

According to government's own admission, despite rise in number of medical colleges, the doctor-patient ratio also remains lower than the WHO recommendations of having 100 doctors per lakh population in India.

"It is only 77 per lakh even though the number of MBBS and post-graduate seats in medical colleges witnessed a steady rise in the past seven years," reported The Deccan Herald referring to the data shared by the governmern in Parliament.

Rajya Sabha member Amar Patnaik of the Biju Janata Dal sought details of the vacancies for doctors, nurses and other staff in central government hospitals and asked whether the ministry is considering “targeted recruitment” to fill the positions.

In response, the ministry released details of vacancies as on January 2023 and said that “recruitment is being carried out as per functional need”.

The ministry reported 221 vacancies for doctors in AIIMS, New Delhi, 220 in Safdarjung Hospital, 113 in Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital and 81 in Lady Hardinge Medical College.

It also reported 170 vacancies in Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research, Puducherry, 146 vacancies in the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, and 119 in the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, Shillong.

Further, it reported 128 vacancies in AIIMS-Patna, 107 in AIIMS-Bhopal, 81 in AIIMS-Jodhpur, 78 in AIIMS-Kalyani, 105 in AIIMS-Rishikesh and 117 in AIIMS-Rajkot, among others. The ministry also reported over 20,000 vacancies of nurses and other staff in the central government hospitals.

“These are all tertiary care hospitals where patients get referred when certain services are not available in community health centres or primary health centres. The shortage of doctors or specialists in tertiary care centres will force patients to turn to private hospitals,” Patnaik was quoted as saying by the The Telegraph.

K Srinath Reddy, former president of Public Health Foundation of India told media, “One of the key reasons for unavailability of doctors in metro cities is having well equipped hospitals in the private sector with more emoluments. Such private hospitals provide the pull factor while the push factor comes from lower pay-scale in the government, bureaucracy and poor work environment.”

The health ministry told Parliament that 1.3 million allopathic doctors were registered with the state medical councils and the National Medical Commission in June 2022.

Follow us on: Facebook, Twitter, Google News, Instagram 

Join our official telegram channel (@nationalherald) and stay updated with the latest headlines