- World Health Day today
India’s India’s doctor- population ratio is 1:834, assuming 80 per cent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 565,000 Ayurvedic, Unani, Siddha and homeopathic doctors, Mansukh Mandaviya, Union minister of health and family welfare told the Rajya Sabha April 5, 2022.
There are 1,301,319 allopathic doctors registered with state medical councils and the National Medical Commission as of November 2021. There are 289,000 registered dentists and 1.3 million allied and healthcare professionals in the country.
There are 3.3 million registered nursing personnel according to Indian Nursing Council records. This includes 2,340,501 registered nurses and midwives and 1,000,805 nurse associates. The nurse-population ratio in the country at present is 1.96 nurses per 1,000 population, Mandaviya said.
Public health spending
The Department of Health and Family Welfare has been making consistent efforts to increase public health spending, Bharati Pravin Pawar, minister of state in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the Rajya Sabha.
The budget allocation for the Department has increased by 50.5 per cent to Rs 71,269 crore in 2021-22, from Rs 47,353 crore in 2017-18. The budget estimate for 2022-23 is Rs 83,000 crore.
TB deaths
Some 4,320 people died due to tuberculosis in India last year, compared to 5,417 deaths in 2020, Pawar told the Rajya Sabha. The reported deaths due to TB have remained at around four per cent over the last two years, Pawar added.
Honey adulteration
Some 28,347 of 107,829 samples of honey analysed in Indian states and Union territories (UT) in 2020-21, did not conform to food safety standards, Pawar told the Rajya Sabha.
The sampling was done after commissioners of food safety in all states and UTs were advised to inspect all honey manufacturing units under their jurisdiction.
They were especially told to look out for the presence of golden syrup / invert sugar syrup / rice syrup / high fructose corn syrup or any other sugar syrup in the premises and also check the use of such syrups in honey, Pawar said.
These syrups are common adulterants in honey according to Regulation 2.8.3 of Food Safety and Standards (Food Products Standards and Food Additives) Regulations, 2011, which was amended November 15, 2021.
Delhi-based non-profit, Centre for Science and Environment had reported on the large-scale adulterations being carried out in honey units across India in a 2020 expose.
Mental Health issues post covid-19
The “Global prevalence and burden of depressive and anxiety disorders in 204 countries and territories in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic” study, published in Lancet public health, has estimated an increase of about 35 per cent in the prevalence of anxiety and depression in India during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For providing affordable and accessible mental healthcare facilities, the Government is implementing the National Mental Health Programme (NMHP) in the country. The District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) component of the NMHP has been sanctioned for implementation in 704 districts for which support is provided to States/UTs through the National Health Mission.
Facilities made available under DMHP at the Community Health Centre (CHC) and Primary Health Centre (PHC) levels, include outpatient services, assessment, counselling/ psycho-social interventions, care and support to persons with severe mental disorders, drugs, outreach services, ambulance services etc. In addition to above services there is a provision of 10 bedded in-patient facility at the district level.
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission
TheNational Digital Health Mission (now known as Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission-ABDM) was launched as a pilot on 15th August 2020 in six Union Territories– Andaman & Nicobar, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep and Puducherry. Its aim is to establish a National Digital Health Ecosystem by creating an online platform enabling interoperability of health data within the health ecosystem to create longitudinal electronic health record of citizens & facilitate delivery of health services through this Digital Health Ecosystem.
Three key registries of NDHM namely Health ID, Health Professional Registry (HPR), Health Facility Registry (HFR) and digital infrastructure for data exchange have been developed and implemented in these UTs. On 27th September 2021, the national rollout of the ABDM has been announced.As on date, Rs 45 Cr has been released to National Health Authority (NHA) for implementation of ABDM.
Till 28th March 2022, a total of 20,97,55,222 Health IDs (ABHA Number) have been created in the country. The detail of state wise Health IDs (ABHAs) created is at
