One doctor for 834 people in country: Minister of State for Health Bharati Praveen Pawar says

The doctor population ratio in India has become 1:834. This means that one doctor is treating 834 people in the country. Minister of State for Health Bharati Praveen Pawar gave this information in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. He said that the number of registered allopathic doctors in the country is 80 percent.

At the same time, the number of AYUSH doctors is 5.65 lakh. Apart from this, there are 36.14 lakh nursing workers in the country, taking the nurse-population ratio to 1:476. If we understand in simple language, there is only 1 nurse for 476 people.

Pawar said in a written reply that according to the National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with the State Medical Councils and the National Medical Commission (NMC) till June 2022. Assuming 80 percent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor population ratio in the country comes to 1:834.

Pawar also said that the government has increased the number of medical colleges. Due to this, MBBS seats have also increased. There has been an 82 percent increase in medical colleges, from 387 before 2014 to 706 now.

Moreover, MBBS seats have increased by 112 per cent from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,08,940 now. The minister said PG seats have increased by 127 per cent from 31,185 before 2014 and now the number is 70,674.