Brain drain of doctors from public to private sector: Govt

New Delhi, Apr 30 (UNI) The Government today said there was a brain drain of doctors from the public to private sector due to ''some problems'' in its health policy.

In reply to a question by S K Kharventhan (Congress) in the Lok Sabha, Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss said thousands of doctors were returning to India due to significant boom in the medical tourism.

However, he said most of these doctors were joining private hospitals because of heavy pay packages offered to them.

''What can we do? There are some problems with our health policy,'' Dr Ramadoss added.

He said thousands of people were coming to India from different countries for treatment of several diseases. This was mainly because India offered them reasonable cost of treatment, the Minister added.

He said the Government had initiated several steps to overcome the shortage of doctors in the country.

Dr Ramadoss said a report by a Planning Commission high-level group suggested that there was a requirement of at least six lakh doctors besides adequate number of dental surgeons and nurses across the hospitals in the country.

However, he said there was no shortage in the aggregate number of doctors and nurses in the country.

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