Doctor-Population Ratio In Country At 1:834, Better Than WHO Standards: Health Minister

The doctor-population ratio in the country stands at 1:834 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Lok Sabha on Friday.

As per the information provided by National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with the state medical councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) as on June, 2022, Mr Mandaviya said responding to a question.

"Assuming 80 per cent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834 which is better than the WHO standard of 1:1000," he said.

Also, there are 34.33 lakh registered nursing personnel and 13 lakh allied and healthcare professionals in the country. The government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS seats, Mr Mandaviya stated.

There is an increase of 82 per cent in medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 706 as of now.

Further, there is an increase of 112 per cent in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,08,940 as of now, there is also an increase of 127 per cent in PG seats from 31,185 before 2014 to 70,674 as of now, the minister stated.

For increasing the number of psychiatrists in the country, PGMEB of the NMC issued the Minimum Standard of Requirements for Post-Graduate Courses - 2023 (PGMSR-2023) on January 15, Mr Mandaviya said responding to a question on whether the government plans to take steps such as training healthcare workers to properly address mental health issues.

"For starting or increase of seats in MD (psychiatry), PGMSR-2023 has brought down the number of OPD to 30 per day, for annual intake of maximum two PG students with 20 per cent increase for each additional seat.

Similarly, the minimum beds required per unit for starting MD (psychiatry) course with two seats in a medical college is eight beds and 12 beds for three seats and 20 beds for five seats," he said.

Under the tertiary care component of NMHP, 25 Centres of Excellence have been sanctioned to increase the intake of students in PG departments in mental health specialities as well as to provide tertiary level treatment facilities, the minister stated.

Further, the government has also supported 19 government medical colleges/institutions to strengthen 47 PG departments in mental health specialties. Mental health services are also provisioned for 22 AIIMS through the psychiatry departments.

He said that mental health infrastructure development is being implemented across the primary, secondary, and tertiary care facilities for implementing the measures detailed in National Mental Health Policy (NMHP) 2014.

As part of the NMHP, the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) component has been sanctioned for implementation in 738 districts of the country, for which support is provided to states and Union Territories through the National Health Mission.

As per DMHP guidelines, one psychiatrist, one clinical psychologist, one psychiatric social worker, one psychiatric nurse, one community nurse, one monitoring and evaluation officer and case registry assistant and one ward assistant are the staff of the District Mental Health Programme Team, Mr Mandaviya elaborated.

Under the DMHP implemented under the National Mental Health Programme, the manpower is trained at various DMHP units. One of the components of DMHP is to provide training to specialist and non-specialist cadres such as medical officers, psychologists, social workers, and nurses.

The government is also augmenting the availability of manpower to deliver mental healthcare services in the underserved areas of the country by providing online training courses to various categories of general healthcare medical and para-medical professionals through the Digital Academies, since 2018.

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