The Challenges Confronting Public Hospitals in India, Their Origins, and Possible Solutions

Table 10

Availability of allopathic doctors in the rural healthcare set up in India.

Year	2005**	2007	2008	2010	2011
Rural population	78,14,88,000*	79,99,05,000*	80,88,43,000*	82,61,73,000*	83,30,87,662
Total government doctors in rural health sector (a)	23,858	27,725	28,654	42,584	45.062
Doctors/1000 rural population	0.03	0.03	0.04	0.05	0.05
Total number of government allopathic doctors (b)	67576	76542	84852	85254	97648
Total number of allopathic doctors registered with IMC/SMCs in the country (c)	660801	731439	761429	846172	921877
Total number of allopathic doctors in urban areas (c−a)	636943	703714	732775	803588	876815
Ratio of the rural to urban allopathic doctors (c−a)/a	1 : 26.7	1 : 25.4	1 : 25.6	1 : 18.9	1 : 19.5

Source: *Figures for rural population for the respective year have been calculated from tables Projected Total Population by Sex in India (As on 1st March, 2001 to 2026) and Projected Urban Population by Sex in India (As on 1st March, 2001 to 2026) available from http://indiastat.com. **Figures for the year 2005 have been taken from the comparative tables available in Bulletin of Rural Health Services (RHS), 2011. Figures for the respective years have been taken from the RHS bulletin for the respective year. Note: It need be noted that the availability of doctors in rural health services is the availability as on records. However, there are large variations in the actual availability of doctors in the rural health institutions due to problems like absenteeism, unequal posting of doctors at different institutions. In some of the states, among the allopathic medical graduates posted at rural healthcare institutions, there are a good number of dental graduates who would find it difficult to handle many of the health problems of the people not covered by their discipline.
To calculate the total allopathic doctors (excluding dental surgeons) in urban areas we have presumed that the govt. doctors posted in rural areas are the only allopathic doctors in rural areas, which is largely true with some variations. As regards the availability of allopathic doctors in urban areas, the figures are only approximations because we have presumed that all the doctors registered with the medical councils and who are not serving in rural health services to be working in urban areas, whereas the fact is that a good number of them migrate out of the country.