With around 2,500 new hospitals proposed in next 5 years and thereby creating 2.5 million additional jobs in the health sector, India is expected to meet the WHO norm of 1:1000 doctor-patient ratio by 2024, said Dr VK Paul, Member, NITI Aayog at an event here. He however, added that attaining the required number of specialist doctors is a five times more difficult agenda.

Around 80,000 PG seats will be added by 2024, with participation of private sector healthcare providers, said  Dr Paul  at the launch of certificate course on ‘Specialist Training To Tackle The Burden of NCDs’ organized by FICCI here recently.

He added that with the improvement in the ease of doing business in the private healthcare sector, new players will enter the sector which will not only create new employment opportunities but also provide better healthcare services.

FICCI, jointly with NITI Aayog, has been working on identifying innovative alternate methods of strengthening the number of specialized doctors in India that can be scaled-up, especially for high burden diseases and conditions. In continuation to this, FICCI has partnered with ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) to launch the first of its kind Diabetes Certification Course for General Practitioners (GP), considering the WHO statistics of 69.2 million Indians suffering with diabetes in 2015 and not enough endocrinologists to deliver specialized care.

Commenting on the tie-up, Dr Paul said, “The ECHO model is unique in more than one ways, but what makes this program even more unique is the partnership with the industry through FICCI”. He also highlighted that the government has made provisions to double the number of UG seats in medical education by 2024, but attaining the required number of specialist doctors is a five times more difficult agenda. He further added that 80,000 PG seats will be added by 2024, with participation of private sector healthcare providers.

Manoj Jhalani, AS & MD (NHM), Union Health Ministry highlighted the quadruple challenge of quantity, quality, right skill-mix and physical distribution of human resources for healthcare. He said, “It is important to empower primary health teams and General Physicians (GPs). The Ministry is working on several aspects to increase number of specialist doctors in the country and is also exploring participatory approaches for engaging private sector like contribution for stipends paid to DNB students at both public and private hospitals.”