The union minister of state, Mrs. Bharati Pravin Pawar informed the Lok Sabha that the doctor-population ratio in India is 1:854 which is better than the World Health Organization’s standard of 1:1000. Besides, there are 34.33 lakh registered nursing and 13 lakh allied and healthcare professionals in the country.

As per the information shared by the NMC, currently, there are 13, 08,009 allopathic doctors registered with different state medical councils and the NMC. Considering 80% presence of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in the country is 1:834, better than the WHO standard of 1:1000-informed the minister in her written reply.

While answering another question, she also said that post-graduate medical seats are not left vacant, the government has lowered the cut-off percentile for admission in PG and diploma courses, while the counseling for all India quota seats has been raised to four rounds from the year 2021.

Enumerating steps to enhance the availability of doctors in the country, especially in the ‘under-served’ regions, “the number of UG seats has increased from 51, 348 before 2014 to 91, 927 seats as of date, which is an increase of 79%.”

Steps to increase the doctor-patients ratio include a scheme sponsored by the center to establish new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals under which 157 new medical colleges have been approved and 72 are already functional.

[ETHealthWorld. 23 July 2022. https://health.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/industry/indias-doctor-population-ratio-of-1854-better-than-who-standard-of-11000-mos-tells-ls/93064007]