Eight out of 10 village clinics have no specialist doctors, a recent report has revealed - even as India continues to produce an impressive number of medical practitioners.

Rural Health Statistics 2014-15 released by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare showed a shortfall of around 81.2 per cent of specialists in Community Health Centres (CHC) in rural areas.

There was a huge shortfall of surgeons (83.4 per cent), obstetricians and gynaecologists (76.3 per cent), physicians (83.0 per cent), and paediatricians (82.1 per cent).

Though the country continues to produce an impressive number of medical practitioners, eight out of 10 village clinics have no specialist doctors as per the report (picture for representation)

Overall, there was a shortfall of 81.2 per cent specialists at the CHCs.

Even allopathic doctors in Primary Health Centre are few in number, said the report.

The only heartening fact is that the number of allopathic doctors at Primary Health Centres (PHC) has jumped by 35 percent from 20308 in 2005 to 27421 in 2015.

But a major reduction was observed in the State of Jammu & Kashmir (390).

As far as the Specialist doctors at CHCs are concerned, their number has declined from 4,091 in 2014 to 4,078 in 2015.

Major reductions have been noticed in the States of Rajasthan (125) and Punjab (29).

Real picture

The scenario is no different for paramedical staff in rural India though there has been a significant increase in the number of paramedical staff in 2015 when compared with the situation in 2005.

“As on 31 March, 2015 the overall shortfall in the posts of Health Worker (Female) / Auxiliary Nurse Midwife (ANM) at Sub centre and PHCs was 5.21 per cent of the total requirement, mainly due to shortfall in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu , Tripura, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh,” the report said.

The report has highlighted that India continues to struggle with providing basic healthcare to its patients and the rural health care infrastructure in the country is not sufficient to meet the current population norm.

The figures of rural health infrastructure in tribal areas indicate that there is a shortfall of 6,796 sub-centers, 1,267 PHCs and 309 CHCs.

While the sub centres, PHCs and CHCs in rural areas have increased in number in 2014-15, the current numbers are not sufficient to meet their population norm, the report said.

Figures

There are 1,53,655 sub-centres, 25,308 PHCs and 5,396 CHCs functioning in the country. In the past 10 years, the total number of sub-centers, PHCs and CHCs added throughout the country remain at 7,629, 2072 and 2050 respectively.

The number of existing sub-centres increased from 1,46,026 in 2005 to 1,53,655 by March 2015, which includes significant increase in the figure in states like Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tripura and Uttarakhand, the report said.