July 1st marked Doctors’ Day – and while the occasion was an opportunity to thank the medical professionals who work to ensure good health, it also was a bitter reminder of the public health crisis India is facing. The government has put a figure to the mammoth medical staff shortage India is battling. The new […]
specialist doctors
Raising the retirement age of doctors
Punjab has announced it may raise the age at which government doctors may retire in a bid to address the state’s shortage of doctors. The doctor-patient ratio in Punjab was actually ranked as one of the best in India in September last year. The Times of India reported that Punjab had one medico for every […]
How an unskilled workforce leads to subpar healthcare
When talking about the state of healthcare in India, accessibility is only one part of the problem. Healthcare must be readily available, yes, but it must also be high-quality. A workforce dogged by shortages of qualified personnel presents a significant challenge to making this a reality. New research published in BMJ Open shows that India […]
India facing shortage of surgery trainees
India’s shortage of surgeons could get worse in the coming years, new government data suggests. The number of medical trainees studying to become surgeons is declining. Of 2,029 surgery seats in super speciality courses for the 2018-19 academic year, 189 went unfilled. Super speciality courses are those for which candidates have to clear National Eligibility-cum-Entrance […]
In Warangal, the biggest hospital sits in crisis
The Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Warangal, Telangana is the city’s largest government-run hospital – and it’s in crisis. Shortages of staff and equipment plague the facility. In recent weeks, the situation has forced emergency meetings to be held between hospital officials and Hospital Development Society (HDS) officials. Present included the hospital’s superintendent Dr B. […]
How many hours do Indian doctors really work?
Doctors reacted with anger after a government minister suggested they only work forty hours a week. India’s shortage of doctors often makes their job harder, outraged medicos suggested as they claim to work often double that figure. One doctor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) stated that doctors sometimes work between 100 and […]
Lack of forensic doctors highlights a national crisis
Shocking findings from Punjab have served to highlight one of the biggest issues confronting public health in India: the country’s lack of specialist doctors. Doctors untrained in the field of forensics perform eighty percent of autopsies in the state. This is resulting in “poor quality of work”, warns Dr D S Bhullar, president of the […]
Regulate telemedicine, doctors say
Telemedicine can provide a useful route for patients getting a consultation who otherwise face difficulty in seeing a doctor. However, the country’s apex doctors’ network has called for clear guidelines on the practise amidst legal uncertainty following a recent court case. Two doctors were found culpable by the Bombay High Court (BHC) in the death […]
Sub-par healthcare kills more than a million
India loses around 1.6 million deaths each year to sub-par healthcare according to a new study published in The Lancet. The vast majority of these deaths are entirely preventable. This figure is twice the established number of people who died due to lack of access to healthcare, which is estimated to be around 838,000 people. This […]
Heart diseases kill, but heart doctors are in short supply
Heart diseases are India’s biggest killers. In 2016, 28.1 percent of all deaths were due to cardiovascular ailments. Yet, despite losing 1.7 million lives to heart disease every year, India does not have enough cardiologists to manage the burden. “India needs 88,000 cardiologists. It has just 4,000.” India needs 88,000 cardiologists. It has just 4,000. By […]