Shortage of female docs affecting health plans

NEW DELHI: India is facing a dire shortage of female doctors. And, this under-representation of women in the healthcare workforce is seriously affecting women’s access to medical facilities.

At present, nearly two-third or 66% of all health workers are men. The number of female allopathic doctors (medical graduates with a bachelor’s or post-graduate specialist diploma or degree registered with the Indian Medical Council) is especially low.

Only 17% of all allopathic doctors and 6% of allopathic doctors in rural areas are women. This means that there is less than one female allopathic doctor per 10,000 population in rural areas (0.5) whereas it is 6.5 in urban areas. The number of female doctors per 10,000 population ranges from 7.5 in Chandigarh to 0.26 in Bihar.

According to the paper “Human resources for health in India”, published in the British Medical Journal ‘Lancet’, one in five dentists are women while the number stands at one in 10 pharmacists. Women, however, dominate the nursing and midwife category as expected. Around 80% of nurses and 85% midwives are women.

“The safety of female health workers in rural areas is also a concern,” the paper says. Overall, too, India is facing a serious dearth of healthcare workers. There are eight healthcare workers, 3.8 allopathic doctors and 2.4 nurses per 10,000 population.

When compared to other countries, this is about half the WHO benchmark of 25.4 workers per 10,000 population. When adjusted for qualification, the number falls to about a quarter of the WHO benchmark. In a strange dichotomy, even though the public sector is the main provider of preventive care services, 80% of outpatient visits and 60% of hospital admissions are in the private sector.

Consequently, 71% of health spending is out of pocket, and, every year, such expenditure forces 4% of the population into poverty, the paper said.

According to the 2005 estimates, India had almost 2.2 million health workers, including 6.7 lakh allopathic doctors and 2 lakh practitioners of ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha and homoeopathy.

India has roughly 20 health workers per 10 000 population. The total healthcare workforce consists of allopathic doctors (31%), nurses and midwives (30%), pharmacists (11%), practitioners of ayurveda and yoga (9%) and others (9%).

Health workers are also unevenly distributed across the country. The number of such workers per 10,000 population ranges from 23.2 in Chandigarh to 2.5 in Meghalaya.