51,061 positions for health workers lying vacant, Centre informs Parliament

NEW DELHI: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that more than 50,000 posts are currently lying vacant for workers in various primary health care sectors across the country.

Responding to Communist Party of India MP Binoy Viswam’s query, minister of state for health Bharati Pravin Pawar shared data collected by Rural Health Statistics and said that 51,061 posts are at present lying vacant for doctors, nurses, health workers and other health professionals across all states and Union territories.

Pawar said that there are 38,465 primary health centers, community health centers, sub-district/divisional hospitals and district hospitals, including central government hospitals across the country as of March 31, 2020.

She informed that the number of registered health care professionals in India include 13,01,319 allopathic doctors, 2.89 lakh dentists and 13 lakh allied and healthcare professionals. As per records provided by the Indian Nursing Council, there are 33.41 lakh nursing personnel in the country, including 23,40,501 nurses and midwives, and 10,00,805 nurse associates.

The ministry added that the doctor-citizen population ratio is 1:834, while the nurse-citizen ratio is 1.96:1,000.