Page 43 - Tehelka Issue 15 August 2018

healthcare

photos: tehelka archives

period, due to the rapid privatization of of the rising population; the higher NEET, has less than half the number of
medical education, the total number of capabilities and expectations of the registered doctors. Some of these states
medical colleges increased rapidly to medical practitioners, especially spe- were vociferous in their resistance to
412 by 2015. In 1990, 33 per cent of the cialist doctors, do not match with the NEET and were had a notorious reputa-
medical colleges were privately owned, primary health-care requirements and tion of medical colleges ‘selling’ seats to
which increased to 57 per cent in 2011. affordability of the majority of people potential students.
The annual first-year graduate enrol- in rural areas; and increase in the num- Yet training more doctors is but
ment capacity in these colleges ac- ber of registered doctors do not reflect part of the solution, as it is becom-
counted for about 51,825 in 2015–2016 the actual availability of doctors in the ing increasingly clear that India is in a
academic year. The number of doctors country because it does not take into highly competitive battle with devel-
entered into Indian medical registers account the attritions that occur due oped countries to retain the services
annually increased from about 4,066 to death, retirement, emigration, dis- of those newly minted doctors. Out of
in 1961 to 33,927 in 2011. This number, continuation of practice, switching of the total number of graduates, about 10
however, decreased to 26,342 in 2014. profession, etc. per cent are opting for pastures abroad.
Consequently, the accumulated stock Another worrying trend is that the Since the 1960s, India has been one of
of registered doctors expanded from states which are the worst perform- the most important source countries
about 75,594 in 1960 to 9,43,529 by 2014. ers in the National Eligibility-cum- of medical doctors for the advanced
The rapid growth of medical doctors Entrance Test (NEET), for admission to countries, like US, UK, Canada and New
through recent expansion of private MBBS courses, have the highest num- Zealand. Despite the recent decline in
medical education could not transform ber of registered doctors. States like the entry of Indian medical graduates
the basic health outcomes of the popu- Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu had the to the US and UK, their accumulated
lation in a significant way. The major lowest pass percentage in NEET at 39.57 stocks in these countries still remain
reasons are: recent increase in the and 39.55. While Maharashtra tops the staggeringly high. Gulf countries also
number of medical practitioners is not list of registered doctors (1,53,513), Ta- host a significant number of Indian
adequate to match the much rapid in- mil Nadu is not far behind (1,26,399). doctors. Although no reliable data are
crease in aggregate health-care needs Rajasthan, the best-performing state in available, media reports indicate Gulf

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