Indien: Defizit in qualifizierter Gesundheitspflege erfordert umgehend Handlungsbedarf

Viele indische Fachkräfte im Bereich der Gesundheitspflege wandern in Industrieländer ab. Dieser Brain Drain sowie die Tatsache, dass nicht genug qualifizierte Fachkräfte nachkommen, haben im gesamten Land zu einen akuten Engpass im Gesundheitssektor geführt.


Shortfall of qualified healthcare professional needs urgent attention
Mainstreaming nursing and paramedics is the solution

"Indian Nursing Council (INC) is focussing on equipping the nursing professionals with the latest technological developments in the field of healthcare to align them with the industry", said, Mr. T Dileep Kumar, President, Indian Nursing Council at the Plenary Session IV on 'Addressing Manpower Shortage: Creating the skill-sets for Patient Care' of the 5th India Healthcare Summit organized jointly by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and Indian Healthcare Federation. The session marked the release of white paper on 'Addressing the healthcare workforce requirements in India'.

Underlining the various policy initiatives undertaken by the INC, Mr. Kumar, further stated that the council has revised the syllabus.

India tops the list in physicians, radiologists, laboratory technicians, dental hygienists, physiotherapists and medical rehabilitation workers migrating to developed countries. This brain drain and the fact that not enough qualified healthcare professionals are passing out each year to meet the increasing healthcare demand together have led to acute shortage of qualified healthcare manpower in the country.

Opining on obvious gap of trained manpower, Dr. Narottam Puri, President Medical Strategy & Quality, Fortis Healthcare Ltd. said that, "as per the planning commission report, India at present requires six lakh doctors, ten lakh nurses and two lakh dental surgeons. The problem is graver in the rural and semi-urban areas. There has been a falling demand for medicine as a career, obsolete curriculum further aggravated by pathetic situation of working healthcare professionals. Looking at such dismaying ratio of healthcare professionals India needs to come up with strategies that will fill this gap and take care of the booming Indian healthcare economy which is staled to become a $75 billion industry by 2012." He also highlighted the need to mainstream nursing and paramedic staff in the system.

India healthcare should take inspirations from the virtual reach provided by IT, rather than thinking about increasing the number the medical professionals. Indian IT sector can very well help striking off the reach aspect by coming forth with innovative solutions in telemedicine, Bluetooth and cellular technologies, said Dr. Tom Mcafee, Dean of Clinical Affairs, San Diago Health Services. At the same time the nation should analyse collectively in a thoughtful way as to how much manpower is required in which area of speciality, he further added.

Mr. Deven Parliker, Chief Executive Officer, Avanitya Health, said "we should look towards models imbibing Nurse driven care, which can be a reasonable option. Since Nurses also have a first hand account and understating of medicinal procedures, they should be treated as a counterpart with the mainstream professionals.

The Session Chairman, Mr Tejpreeet Chopra, President & CEO, GE India, said, World Health Organisation's report in 2006, named India as one of the country with critical shortage of healthcare professionals. This future shortfall should be rectified currently so that we as a nation can make concentrated steps on the path of collective development.

Mr. Kumar Krishnaswamy, Head – Human Resources, Wockhardt Hospitals Group, said "human resources functions now should look for innovative solutions and target manpower in rural areas, where bulk of Indian population lives. This ways we can get them to deliver performance at a competitive platform."