To address acute shortage of nursing staff in the country, the Government is exploring an option to make it mandatory for the owners of upcoming medical colleges to attach plans for establishing nursing college as well while seeking its approval. Sources in the Union Health Ministry, the idea was mooted at a recent high-level meeting chaired by Union Health Minister JP Nadda and attended by Ministers of Social Welfare, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation and Child and Welfare.
The proposal of making it mandatory for the medical colleges to have nursing college came up following concerns about severe shortage of human resources particularly paramedical staff including nurses in the health sector. Sources said that Women and Child Development Minister Maneka Gandhi expressed concerns at the existing norms for establishing nursing colleges and suggested a review of the norms to meet the shortage of trained nurses staff.
Director General of Health Services (DGHS) Jagdish Prasad chipped in suggesting that it could be made mandatory for the medical colleges to come up with the plans for nursing colleges well to seek its approval from the Medical Council of India (MCI). Prasad’s idea was endorsed by HUPA Minister Venkaiah Naidu who also sought changes in the MCI norms for establishing medical colleges to address the issue of shortage of human resources in the medical sector in the country.
It was felt that the owners coming up with a proposal for new medical colleges will have no major financial implications in case they are asked to open a nursing college too. Presently, India has 2,000 nursing diploma schools, 1,200 nursing degree schools and 281 MSc nursing colleges. Annually, the country produces around 60,000 nurses, according to a government data. However, over 20 per cent of this number head to foreign shores every year, leaving the local patients at the receiving ends.