Health Care Infrastructure in India: Need for Reallocation and Regulation

It is not the hidden fact that India‟s health care needs serious attention. In almost all the key health indicators given by World Health Organization (WHO) we lag behind. According to World Health Statistics of 2018 India ranks 145 out of 194 countries. According to NITI Aayog India has a scarcity of 6 lakh doctors, 20 lakh nurses and 2 lakh dental surgeons. Though WHO recommends 1:1000 doctor to patient ratio but in rural India it is 1:11082 and in some states like Bihar It is as low as 1:28391 and UP It is 1:19962 (NHP 2018). Around 80% of India‟s1.14 million registered doctors of modern medicine(allopathy) work in cities which is home to just 31% of the country‟s population. same is the case with availability of physical infrastructure i.e. primary health centres (PHCs), community health centres (CHCs), district health centres and hospitals. This study highlights these disparities in health care infrastructure available both in rural and urban India by providing actual status of their availability in the country and need for their reallocation. The main theme of the paper is not only to give actual picture of this infrastructure and find out disparities but also tell measures how to correct these and find out solutions to achieve total health care of 1.3 billion people of the country.