AP-Telangana will need 10,000 healthcare professional by 2020

Hyderabad, Feb 18: Andhra Pradesh and Telangana will need over 10,000 hospital management professionals in the coming five years, according to health care management and research institute IIHMR Bangalore.

"There are an estimated 5,000 private hospitals in the country, barring small and medium clinics and about seven per cent of these are located in AP and Telangana," Indian Institute of Health Management Research (IIHMR) Bangalore, Director, Biranchi N Jena, told reporters here today.

"There is a current requirement of 1,500-2,000 hospital management professionals in these two states, but due to non-availability of qualified professionals, they find it difficult to manage," he said. He said the paucity of quality health care professionals will deepen further in the coming years as many new hospitals will come up and over 10,000 hospital management professionals will be required by 2020 to meet this growing gap.

Quoting a report of draft National Health Policy, Jena said the Indian private health care industry is expected to grow from current around USD 40 billion to USD 280 billion by 2020, adding, there is a huge shortage, running into a few lakhs, of health care staff across all levels in various states of India in the public and private space.

Total healthcare expenditure in India was only 3.9 per cent of GDP, compared to 8.9 per cent for Brazil, 6.2 per cent for Russia and 5.2 per cent for China.

IIHMR offers a two-year full-time Postgraduate Program with specialisation in Hospital management, Health Management and Health Information Technology, he said. To a query, Jena said IIHMR has four campuses across the country and expansion plans are there and based on demand they will open new campuses.

PTI