BS Number Wise: Not enough doctors, nurses amid India's medical crisis

The coronavirus pandemic has overwhelmed India’s healthcare system. One critical gap doesn’t get attention, though: The country’s acute shortage of doctors and nurses.
 
India had 1.16 million doctors, of whom only 80 per cent, or 0.9 million, were working, the health ministry told Parliament in late 2019. This results in 0.68 doctors for every 1,000 people. The WHO prescribes a ratio of 1:1000. As many as 70,262 students graduated with a MBBS degrees in India in 2019-20. If only 80 per cent join medical work, it would take another seven years to reach the WHO standard. If India continues to add 1.1 per cent to its population every year, then even if MBBS seats increase by 5.5 per cent each year, it will take 10 years to reach the WHO standard.
 
The WHO standard is the bare minimum, though. India’s partners at BRICS (Brazil, Russia China, and South Africa) average two doctors for every 1,000 people. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Develo­pment (OECD), which has 38 members, mostly developed countries, has 3.1 doctors. At the current pace, India will take 32 years and 57 years to level with BRICS and OECD, respectively.

 
There aren’t enough nurses, either. WHO prescribes three nurses per 1,000 people; India last year had 3.24 million or 2.36 nurses per 1,000 people. As the country adds 0.21 nurses every ye­ar, it would take two years to reach the WHO-required nurse ratio, 11 years to reach BRICS and 32 to get to the OECD ratio of 9.6 nurses per 1,000 people.
 
The disparity among states is stark. UP has increased its doctor count by 6 per cent in the last two years and Delhi by 27 per cent. While Bihar did not add any nurse between 2016 and 2018, Delhi increased the count by 18.9 per cent. While India has an average of 0.68 doctors per 1,000 people, there is only 0.1 doctor for 1,000 people in rural India.