In spite of notable progress and many positive developments, deficiencies in human resources both in terms of skills and numbers continue to pose a challenge for healthcare sector, affecting “Universal Health Coverage for All”.
According to the most recent figures reported in the World Health Statistics 2011, the density of doctors in India is 6 for a population of 10,000, while that of nurses and midwives is 13 per 10,000 population. India has a doctor-to-population ratio of 0.5:1000 in comparison to 0.3 in Thailand, 0.4 in Sri Lanka, 1.6 in China, 5.4 in the UK, and 5.5 in the United States of America. As per CII-Mckinsey Report, the density of practicing healthcare workforce gets further skewed as almost 25% of the allopathic doctors and 40% nurses do not practice in the formal health system.
The Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) in its report estimated a shortage of 6.4 million allied health professionals in the country. The report highlighted the gap in both; sheer number of professionals of various specialties as well as the quality of skills acquired by the graduating students from several hundreds of institutions across the country.
