NEW DELHI: India is short by 8.5 lakh anesthetists and technicians trained to run an operation theatre, 20.4 lakh dental staff (dental technicians and hygienists), ophthalmologists and optometrists (1.27 lakh), rehabilitation specialists (clinical psychologists) (18 lakh), medical laboratory technicians (61,000), radiographers (19,000), audiology and speech language specialists (7,500) and medical staff-like dieticians (2.3 lakh).
A landmark report on India's shortage of the most important medical cadre - allied health professionals (AHP) - to be released by Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Friday has found that India is short by a whopping 64 lakh AHPs, with highest gaps in Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh.
The study, conducted by Kavita Narayan from the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), says there are only 3,587 dieticians, optometrists (13,678), medical equipment operators (16,240), dental assistants (2,658) and physiotherapists (7,265), for every 10,000 Indians.
The study said, "AHPs are an untapped treasure, critical to fixing the gaping holes in India's health workforce, particularly the severe shortage of physicians and specialists. It would be a grave mistake to not utilize the capacities of this resource."
The report says, "AHPs are the key to health-sector reforms in India. Setting up of a National Institute of Allied Health Sciences (NIAHS) offering post-graduate courses in various allied health streams is timely. It should serve as a centre of excellence for the allied health professions."
It says lack of planned courses and institutions, non-uniform nomenclature for the existing courses, diverse standards of practice and lack of qualified faculty pose a threat to the quality of skills of AHPs.
"There is a need to standardize the course duration, curriculum and training methodologies pertaining to the education and training of AHPs. Even by the most conservative estimates, India has a massive gap in human resources. As the government envisages providing universal access to healthcare during the 12th Five-Year Plan, the availability of skilled AHPs will emerge as the cornerstone to the success of India's public sector health reforms," it says.
According to Azad, the government has just proposed a new scheme - "setting up of state institutions of paramedical sciences in states and setting up of college of paramedical education" - to establish 20 state paramedical institutions and to give one time grant-in-aid to 149 government medical colleges to meet the shortage of paramedical staff in the country.
Azad said the government has proposed to set up one National Institute of Paramedical Sciences (NIPS) at Najafgarh (Delhi) and eight Regional Institutes of Paramedical Sciences (RIPS) in Nagpur, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Lucknow and Bihar at a total cost of Rs 804.43 crore.
Now, more than 50% of the allied health workforce produced annually graduate from only two courses, namely Diploma in Sanitary/ Health Inspector and Diploma in Medical Laboratory Technology stood at 12,134 (39.30%) and 3,789 (12.27%), respectively.
The largest gap of 23,000 ophthalmology professionals was found in UP, followed by Maharashtra (12,600) and a gap of 10,300-12,000 in Bihar and West Bengal.
The gap of rehabilitation-related professionals was the second largest among all the AHP categories. Gaps were found in large numbers ranging from 2.4 lakh to 1.08 lakh workers per state.
The largest gap of 34,600 workers for surgical technologies was in UP with gaps in the range of 18,000 to 19,300 were found in Maharashtra and Bihar.
Medical laboratory technicians are needed mostly in UP of the order of 12,200 professionals.
Dental technologists account for the largest gap among all types of AHPs with the maximum need being in UP of about 3.37 lakhs.
The gaps in states like Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh ranged from 1.42 lakh to 1.9 lakh.
Healthcare professionals helping in surgery and anesthesia also add significantly to the gap of AHPs. Again, Uttar Pradesh had the largest gap of 1.42 lakh. Gaps in states like Maharashtra, Bihar, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh ranged from 60,000 to 80,000.
64 lakh allied healthcare pro crunch ails India
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64 lakh allied healthcare pro crunch ails India
