Missing Doctors: An Epic Healthcare Challenge in India
Indian Healthcare For decades now, shortage of well-trained medical specialists has proved detrimental for the Indian healthcare system. The situation is so acute, that p atients are making do with substandard/inadequate treatment in hospitals and clinics. Queues for a specialist are getting longer and long-distanced. A solution is not in sight. Telemedicine has been experimented with but this may place demand on the already burdened Indian doctor. Ironically, India trains top class medical specialists every year but fails to either retain them or use them judiciously. P er government figures, doctor to patient ratio in India matches the World Health Organization (WHO) standard of one doctor per thousand people. Unfortunately, on ground, medical specialists are far and few. Metropolitan areas are disproportionately over-served as compared to towns and villages. Brain Drain In this era of globalization, professionals are free to migrate to other countries. In the past hal