Govt admits imbalance in availability of doctors and nurses

New Delhi, Aug 31 (UNI) The Government today said there was no shortage of doctors and nurses in the country but admitted that there was an imbalance in their availability in the rural areas.

To a question of Mr Surendra Lath, Minister of State for Health Panabaka Lakshmi in her written answer in the Rajya Sabha said there were 6,83,682 registered allopathic doctors in the country and nearly 31,000 doctors were being churned out by 269 medical colleges annually. There were about 600,000 practitioners in Indian Systems of Medicine and Homeopathy.

Regarding nurses, the report on the National Commission on Macroeconomic and Health had estimated that India would require 3.25 lakh nurses by 2015. There were 1597 Graduate Nursing Midwifery Schools in the country with an intake capacity of 80,000 anually.

She said to attract good doctors to join the Central Health Services, the government was offering better service conditions including higher pay, promotional avenues and increased retirement age. A proposal to make mandatory rural posting for doctors was under the consideration of the Government, she revealed.

Regarding the question of enforcing the code of conduct on doctors, the minister said the government had notified Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations 2002 prescribing various act commissions and omissions which fell in the category of unethical misconduct. The MCI or the State Medical Councils were empowered to take disciplinary action against a physician for violation of the provision.

UNI