When it comes to access to hospital beds, urban residents who form around 30 per cent of India’s population are better off as compared to their counterparts in the villages — having access to just one-third of hospital beds across the country.
Quoting the Government data, Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Friday told Parliament that the number of beds in rural hospitals is 1,83,602 as against 4,92,177 beds in urban hospitals. There are a total of 16,816 hospitals in rural areas and 3,490 hospitals in urban areas in the country.
A close look at the latest National Health Profile of the year 2015 shows that even those States like Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which are often said to have better health indicators have this time failed to providing the adequate number of beds in rural areas, while some of the North-Eastern States such as Mizoram and Manipur have ensured a higher number of beds in the rural areas, when put in comparision to urban areas. (Refer to the box)
While the basic health facilities have remained dismal in the rual areas, even doctors have been reluctant to join the postings in rural areas. Replying to another query, Nadda said further that to make postings at public health facilities in rural and remote areas “attractive” for doctors, States are being provided with financial support and assistance for extending the “hard area” allowance to them.
He also went on to mention that the aid is being provided “so that the doctors find it attractive to join public the health facilities in such areas (rural)”.
To further encourage the doctors to work in remote and difficult areas, the Post-Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, have also been amended with provision of 50 per cent reservation in post-graduate diploma courses for medical officers in Government service who have served for at least three years in remote and difficult areas besides providing other incentives to them.