CJI laments less number of nephrologists in India

New Delhi, Feb 16 (UNI) Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan today lamented less number of nephrologists in the country with a population of more than one billion.

Addressing the Second National Congress on Prevention of Kidney Disease in India, he said the country needed more nephrologists to meet the requirement of the huge population in India.

''We have just 800 nephrologists in the country. In fact, we should have 32,000 and even more,'' Justice Balakrishnan added.

He also lamented that medical aid was inaccessible to the poor people of the country. ''The medical help like legal aid is not accessible to everybody, mostly poor people in the country,'' the Chief Justice of India said.

He stressed the need to focus attention on prevention of kidney disease in the country.

Earlier addressing the Congress, AIIMS Director Dr T D Dogra said there were 800 nephrologists in India out of which 400 were in the national capital region alone.

''This means there is one nephrologist for 15-lakh population while in Australia there is one nephrologist for 1.1 lakh people, and in the US there is one for 20,000,'' he added.

By Australian standard, Dr Dogra said India needs 12,000 nephrologists and by American standard, the country would require 60,000 nephrologists.

He said it was interesting to note that there were 5,000 nephrologists of Indian origin working in the developed world.

''I wonder how can we manage the preventive programme with a meager number of 800 nephrologists in the country. Something is required to be done seriously in this regard. I understand it may be applicable to many other specialities also,'' the AIIMS Director observed.

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