187 new medical colleges need to be opened in India by 2022: HLEG

To achieve the target of having one doctor per 1,000 people as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), India will need to add 187 new medical colleges in 17 high-focus states between 2012 and 2022, says the Planning Commission's High-Level Expert Group (HLEG). Presently, 6.12 lakh allopathic doctors are registered with the Medical Council of India (MCI), which means there is one doctor for 1,953 people at present.

Also, there are 315 medical colleges in India at present, which are concentrated in 188 districts out of a total of 642 districts in India. Consequently, there is just one medical college in Bihar to cater to the population of 115 lakhs, one in UP to cater to the population of 95 lakhs, one in MP to cater to the population of 73 lakhs, and one in Rajasthan to cater to the population of 68 lakhs. The southern states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu have one medical college each too though the population density there is 15 lakhs, 16 lakhs and 19 lakhs respectively.

The HLEG has proposed that new medical colleges can be added in a phased manner. Phase A can be completed by 2015, adding 59 new medical colleges to cater to the students of 15 states like Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, J&K, Jharkhand, MP, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP and West Bengal. In the next two years or by 2017, 70 more medical collegtes can be added to 13 of these. Finally, by 2022, 58 more new medical colleges can be added to the repertoire of India enabling the country to have one medical college for every 25 lakh population in all states, except the states of UP, Bihar and West Bengal.

This addition of new medical colleges is expected to churn out enough doctors by 2028 to achieve the target of one doctor per 1,000 people. The HLEG has also proposed to increase the number of seats in existing medical colleges in the public sector. It has also suggested that private sector can also be encouraged by entering into partnerships with them and offering them goverment reimbursement for fees of local candidates if they allow fixed admission fees and conditional reservation of 50% seats for local students.

According to the World Health Statistics Report 2011, India has just six doctors for 10,000 people and is ranked at #52 out of a total of 57 countries for facing severe crunch in the healthcare industry. However, India has largest number of medical colleges in the world and produces 30,000 doctors and 18,000 specialists every year. Each medical college in India graduates about 100 doctors every year. North America graduates 110 doctors per medical college every year while Central Europe graduates 125 doctors per medical college. China has 188 medical colleges that produce 930 doctors every year each, producing 1,75, 000 doctors annually.

Source: Ruchi Shrimali (Shiksha Team)