Only 1 doctor for 17,685 patients in Bihar, says State Health Minister
Patna : In a recent assembly meeting the Health Minister of Bihar, Mangal Pandey mentioned that at present, a single doctor attends over 17,000 patients Bihar. He told that doctor-population ratio in Bihar is 1:17,685, as against the national average of 1:11,097.
During the question hour, Mr RJD's Akhtarul Islam Shaheen had asked the minister about the doctor-population ratio in view of World Health Organisation's (WHO) set parameter of one doctor for every 1,000 people.
He took no time to reply that there are 6,830 doctors working in the state, including those in medical colleges,
The minister quoted that there are 10 lakh registered doctors in the country whereas the number of registered doctors in Bihar stood at 40,043.
The state government is dedicated to fill the vacant posts of doctors in Bihar, like 1,805 general practitioners and 665 specialists have been appointed on the recommendations of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) in 2016, yet there is a great difference in doctor-patient ratio.
As of now, the State Health Society, Patna, is taking steps to appoint specialist doctors under National Health Mission and general doctors under National Urban Health Mission on contract to solve the problem of high shortage of medical practitioners in the state.
