Obituaries vs medical vacancies

India is a country of 1.3 billion. It has 43,486 private hospitals, 1.18 million beds, 59,264 ICUs, and 29,631 ventilators. On the other hand, there are 25,778 public hospitals, 713,986 beds, 35,700 ICUs, and 17,850 ventilators. Total private infrastructure accounts for nearly 62 per cent of all of India’s health infrastructure. India is considered among few countries for medical tourism where patients from abroad come to seek better and inexpensive treatment for their diseases in super-speciality hospitals.

In 2018, there were over one million doctors registered with the Indian Medical Council across the country. The ratio is 1.34 doctor for 1,000 Indian citizens as of 2017. This means that India has already reached the WHO norm of 1:1,000 doctor population ratio even considering the most conservative estimates, including stringent attrition criteria.

There are government organisations like National Medical Commission (NMC), National Institute of Health and Family Welfare (NIHFW), Medical Council of India (MCI), Indian Nursing Council (INC), and many more which serve the public.

There are 7 AIIMS across the country, and 16 AIIMS have been sanctioned to be set up under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). As of 21 May 2020, there are 542 medical colleges and 64 stand-alone PG institutes in India whose qualifications are recognised by the Medical Council of India. India has 1.7 nurses per 1,000 population, 43 per cent less than the World Health Organisation norm (3 per 1,000), while it is boasted that we supply nurses to the world, especially to the middle eastern countries.

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While this is the primary data reflecting the strength of the medical infrastructure in the country, we still see newspapers filled with a large number of obituaries like never before. These obituaries are not just of the elderly but also of young and middle-aged people. The leading dailies are not only filled with obituaries but also notify vacancies asking for MBBS doctors, nurses, interns, and other healthcare workers. It is a shame that we could not increase the number of seats in medical colleges since so many years of independence. Every year, parents of lakhs of students pay fees in coaching classes so that their child can get a seat in a government medical college.

These students light night lamps to clear PMT and NEET but still cannot get a government seat because of a few marks. Since middle-class parents cannot afford to pay their life’s income by admitting their kids to private colleges, the ultimate dream of becoming a doctor is shattered. This also affects the much-needed supply of doctors. Today we do not have doctors in public health care centres of villages close to big cities like Noida.

There is no check on the fees taken by private medical colleges as well. There exists a nexus of big honchos administering these private colleges.

The pandemic has shown us our reality. While we were exporting oxygen, we realised we had none for our patients to breathe. We only have seventeen oxygen plants in the country. The Supreme Court had to intervene at the last moment because the executive failed in implementing its responsibilities.