Alarming Reports From WHO On Status Of Doctors In India

Over 50% of Them Treating Patients Without Having Any Proper Medical Qualification

A shocking recent report from WHO revealed that over one-third (31%) of the claimed allopathic doctors in India were educated only up to the level of Secondary school and 57% did not have any form of medical qualification. This recent report based on 2001 census, exposes the horrible state of the healthcare workforce in India.

According to the WHO report, most of the doctors in India in true sense do not have the qualification to be one. As expected the situation is far worse in semi-rural, rural and remote India where only about 18.8% allopathic doctors truly have a medical degree. The report titled “The Health Workforce in India” is published in June, 2016.

The Secretary of the Medical Council of India (MCI), Dr. Reena Nayyar told that they are yet to receive this report from WHO. But generally, any doctor practicing medicine without has a registered medical qualification come under quackery. This means the majority of the healthcare workers in India are quacks and life of majority of Indian population depends on them.

Interestingly, the report also revealed that female health care workers, comprising 38% of the total medical professionals in India are more educated and medically qualified than their male counterparts. As per the report over 67% of the female allopathic doctors do have the proper medical qualification, compared to only 38% of male doctors.

The study once again exposed the shoddy state of the health care situation in India. The quacks are able to work as doctors purely because of lack of vigilance from MCI and also due to the severe scarcity of doctors in rural India. The study used census reports of 2001 for each district in the country, providing a comprehensive picture of health workers in each district.

The most recent 2011 Census reports are still not available, but according to researchers think that a similar study will be repeated with 2011 Census data that will give us a more updated picture on qualification of Indian doctors.

Stat Image Source: The Hindu

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