CHANDIGARH, July 31: Each of the 3,286 government doctor in Punjab is serving a population of 8,859 people, a ratio which is nearly nine times more than the WHO-recommended doctor-patient of 1:1000, a survey by the Union ministry of health and welfare’s Central Bureau of Health Intelligence has revealed.
The survey National Health Profile-2017 has also revealed that Punjab spent less than neighbouring Haryana and Himachal Praesh on the health of its residents in the 2014-15 fiscal.
The state’s per-person health expenditure was just Rs 1,001, while that of Haryana was Rs 1,055 and Himachal Pradesh was Rs 2,228. Even when it came to providing dental care, the state’s efforts painted a notso-rosy picture. The survey showed that each of the 300 dental surgeons employed by the Punjab government was catering to 97,039 people.
The survey, released by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, also showed that Punjab’s projected population as per the National Commission of Population was 2.91crore on January 1, 2017.
The report showed that each government hospital in Punjab was catering to a population of 1.21 lakh people, and each bed in a government hospital was meant for 2,460 people. For the survey, the data used for Himachal Pradesh and Haryana was of January 2016 and January 2015, respectively.
In Haryana, according to the report, each government doctors serves a population of 10,189 and a government dental surgeon serves 47,129 people. In Himachal Pradesh, claimed the report, each government doctor was serving a population of 4,639 and a dental doctor was serving 25,498 people. There are 2,618 government doctors and 566 government dental surgeons in Haryana, while in Himachal Pradesh there are just 1,517 government doctors and 276 dental surgeons.
At the same time, in Chandigarh, there were just 141 government doctors and 17 dental surgeons as on January 1, 2017, said the report. As far as hospitals are concerned, each government hospital in Haryana was serving 1,65,195 people on an average, while each hospital bed was serving 3,427 people. In Himachal Pradesh, each government hospital was looking after 42,909 people, while a bed was there for 746 people, showed the report.
Punjab health and family welfare director Dr Rajiv Bhalla said there were short of around 400 specialist doctors at present. “For recruitment under National Health Mission, a file has already been moved by the health minister. Soon, we’ll start walk-in interviews. Apart from specialists, there is a shortage of other medical doctors; that would also be taken care of,” he said.
News Source: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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