Acute shortage of health staff in rural areas: Sonia (Lead)
December 21st, 2011 - 11:28 pm ICT by IANS
New Delhi, Dec 21 (IANS) While medical services in the country have improved, there is still an acute shortage of health professionals in rural areas, Congress president Sonia Gandhi said here Wednesday.
Speaking at the 39th convocation of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Gandhi said that while progress was evident, a lot more needs to be done.
“Life expectancy in India has more than doubled… key indicators such as infant and maternal mortality rates have shown a steady decline and diseases like polio and malaria have been contained.
“Lot more needs to be done to check the acute shortage of health professionals, especially in rural areas,” Gandhi said at a packed auditorium in the AIIMS campus.
According to AIIMS, 465 degrees were awarded at the convocation. Till date, the institute has trained 4,878 specialists, 1,198 super specialists, 2,554 doctors, 871 PhDs and a large number of post graduates in allied health sciences. The institute has also trained 2,388 nurses and paramedical professionals.
Health Minister and president of the institute Ghulam Nabi Azad said: “It is a matter of personal satisfaction that many infrastructure expansion projects of AIIMS that were held up for several years are now under rapid implementation.”
The Delhi-based institute is among the top 10 medical colleges in the world, and caters mostly to the underprivileged people who come from all over the country. It has over 2,200 beds. The Newsweek magazine has described it as an “oasis of the poor”.
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Tags: acute shortage, aiims, all india institute of medical sciences, allied health sciences, congress president sonia gandhi, convocation, ghulam nabi azad, health minister, health staff, india institute, maternal mortality rates, medical colleges, newsweek, newsweek magazine, paramedical professionals, personal satisfaction, phds, post graduates, rapid implementation, steady decline