Clear and present medical crisis: India has few doctors to treat its people

The country has one government doctor for 11,000 people. The WHO recommends one doctor for 1,000 people. The situation is worse in rural India where a government doctor serves over 30,000 people

The government aimed to radically reform India's healthcare system with the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, 2019, which the Lok Sabha passed recently. The legislation was met with protests, and the controversy shifted attention from a core problem: India's acute shortage of doctors. The Act sought to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a new organisation called the National Medical Commission (NMC). While most MCI members were doctors, NMC was to have more technocrats. It sought to rein in India's much-maligned medical sector. But many doctors, feeling their interests were undermined, went on a strike against it.

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