India pushes for skill development and medical safety

 18-Apr-17, ET Healthworld 

India embarked on its health reform journey a decade ago. A need to address the ever-growing disease burden for a diverse population was recognised, with a host of initiatives and programmes at the onset. The private sector too pledged its participation. However, the current healthcare profile still showcases signs of significant gaps and deficiencies in skill development, availability of resources, safety concerns of medical staff, and infrastructure.

Image: ET Healthworld

Outcomes are substantially behind those of peer nations with serious deficit of resources in number as well as in quality. The total number of allopathic doctors and nurses in the country continues to lag the WHO benchmark of 2.5 doctors per 1000 population, at 2.2 per 1000 people.

With the availability of only 7 doctors, 17 nurses/midwives, 1 dentist and 5 pharmaceutical personnel for every 10,000 patients, there exists a huge gap in the availability of trained healthcare professionals.

 Read the full article  

 Insights