After software body Nasscom, the Indian Healthcare Federation (IHCF) is likely to pick-up a 5.1 per cent stake in the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to augment the quality and quantity of manpower in the healthcare sector.
Nasscom recently picked up a similar stake in NSDC to address manpower-related issues in the IT industry.
IHCF is an independent, non-statutory body comprising non-government hospitals, diagnostics, medical equipment manufacturers and pharmaceutical industries, while NSDC is a finance ministry-backed public-private-partnership for developing 150 million trained manpower by 2022 across 21 critical sectors.
“We have been allotted one seat,” IHCF President Naresh Trehan confirmed to Business Standard, referring to the seat on the board of NSDC that will be offered to the body once it picks up the 5.1 per cent stake for '51 lakh.
“We need to develop skills across the entire healthcare sector. There are huge voids to be addressed, and healthcare delivery can’t grow unless we have the trained manpower. There are hundreds of thousands of support staff who need to be better trained. We also require standardisation of skills,” Trehan added.
According to a study conducted by Icra subsidiary ImaCS on behalf of NSDC, the projected human resource requirement in the healthcare sector in India will exceed 1.2 million trained medical personnel by 2022. The study suggests that an additional 1.98 million doctors, 9.22 million nurses and 785,000 technicians and paramedics, among others, will be required in India by the end of this period.