Government: Less than one doctor for every 1000 Indians

New Delhi: India fares worse than Pakistan as far as the number of doctors for every 1,000 population Is concerned. While India is reported to have 0.62 doctors for every 1,000 people, Pakistan has more than 0.8 doctors. The doctor population ratio for India is less than the World Health Organisation prescribed standard of 1:1,000, the Lok Sabha was informed on Friday.

Minister of state for health Anupriya Patel said as per information provided by the Medical Council of India, there were a total 10,22,859 allopathic doctors registered with the state medical councils or Medical Council of India as on March 31 this year.

“Assuming 80 per cent availability, it is estimated that around 8.18 lakh doctors may actually be available for active service. It gives a doctor-population ratio of 0.62:1,000 as per current population which is estimated to be of around 1.33 billion,” she said during Question Hour.

The minister said emphasis of the government was to increasing the number of doctors in the country to improve the doctor population ratio.

There are 479 medical colleges in the country with an intake capacity of 67,218 MBBS seats. 12,870 MBBS seats have been added in the last three years, she said.