Shortage of 28,000 health centres in India: Economic Survey
July 2nd, 2009 - 4:58 pm ICT by IANS ( Leave a comment )New Delhi, July 2 (IANS) There has been an improvement in the health sector but India faces a shortage of over 28,000 health centres, the Economic Survey 2008-09 said Thursday.
“There is a shortage of 20,855 sub centres, 4,833 primary health centres (PHCs) and 2,525 community health centres (CHCs) as per the 2001 population norm,” the survey said.
“Further, 34 percent of the existing health infrastructure is in rented buildings. Poor upkeep and maintenance, and high absenteeism of manpower in rural areas are the main problems in the health delivery system in the public sector,” it added.
Currently there are 171,687 health centres in India and the number of dispensaries and hospitals is 33,855. While there are 1.5 million nurses in the country, the doctors in the modern system of medicine are 84,852.
The survey said the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) seeks to strengthen the public health delivery system at all levels. It said as part of the NRHM, 649,000 health workers in rural areas have been selected, of which 563,000 have been given orientation training.
It said strengthening of the PHCs for round the clock services is a priority of the NRHM. “Of the 22,370 PHCs in the country, only 1,263 of them were working 24×7 on March 31, 2005 (before the NRHM). The number of 24×7 PHCs today, as reported by the states, is 7,212, signifying a big leap forward in getting patients to the government system.”
Underlining the achievement of the government, the survey said over 159 million women have been brought under the Janani Suraksha Yojana for institutional deliveries in the last three years.
Indian Public Health (IPH) Standards have been finalised and a first grant of Rs.2 million was made available to all the district hospitals of the country to improve their basic services. So far 243 Mobile Medical Units are operational in the states, the survey informed.
The survey also highlights the achievement in AIDS control. It said the health ministry is providing anti-retro viral treatment to more than 217,000 HIV patients.
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