Healthcare systems faced unprecedented strain across the world, especially in developing countries like India in the wake of COVID-19 outbreak in 2020 with patients overwhelming hospitals. Acute shortage of medical professionals and healthcare facilities adversely affected the delivery of services, thus causing panic among the public. The health crisis pushed governments around the world to boost the healthcare system. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha last month, minister of state for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Bharati Pravin Pawar stated that India has significantly increased the number of medical colleges from 387 before 2014 to 660, while MBBS seats have increased from 51,348 before 2014 to 101,043, which is a 97% increase. Citing information provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC), Pawar said the doctor-population ratio in the country as on June 2022 is 1:834, which is better than World Health Organisation’s recommendation of one doctor for every 1000 people. Though the estimation was arrived at by not just assuming an 80% availability of 13.08 lakh registered allopathic doctors but also including 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the efforts made by the Centre towards enhancing healthcare system is commendable considering the fact that the country is far behind developed nations in terms of providing health services to citizens.
Meanwhile, the Economic Survey 2019-2020 had projected the doctor-population ratio in Nagaland at 1:4056 (projected population 2020), which is way below the national average. The number of allopathic doctors registered with the Nagaland Medical Council as on June 2022 stands at just 141, which is the lowest among the states and UTs listed by the NMC. This is a matter of grave concern as the initiatives undertaken by the state government in upgrading healthcare facilities across the state may not result in the improvement of services in the absence of doctors. At this critical juncture, the NMC has given the green signal to Nagaland Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (NIMSR) for commencing its first academic session, starting this year, with an intake of 100 MBBS seats. The operationalisation of Nagaland’s first medical college could help address the acute shortage of doctors in the state besides providing opportunities to young minds aspiring to become medical professionals. However, the state government needs to do lots of homework for the success of the much-awaited institute. To avoid revoking of “letter of permission” for the current academic year, the concerned authorities should ensure that all requirements including physical and human resource are in place. The college should emphasise on imparting quality medical education or else poorly trained doctors will flood the market. The teaching faculty should be selected purely based on merit; clinical experience should be taken into account besides degrees. The health sector will improve only if quality education with sense of social accountability is imparted to medical students.
