S. Ramananda Shetty, Vice-Chancellor of Nitte University, said on Saturday that there was a massive shortage of healthcare professionals in India. He was delivering the address at the graduation day of SDM College of Ayurveda here.
Dr. Shetty said that the country required at least 13 lakh doctors, but it had only 6.5 lakh doctors. While 18 lakh nurses were required, there were only 10 lakh. Unless this shortage was addressed, the healthcare sector would continue to face problems.
India had 17 per cent of the world’s population and 2 per cent of the landmass, but it had 21 per cent of the world’s diseases.
The total health spending accounted for only 4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product in the country. This showed the severity of the problem in the healthcare sector. All these called for sustained efforts to improve the situation with regard to healthcare.
This also meant that outgoing Ayurveda graduates had opportunities to prosper, provided they were good in their profession. “Students should realise that learning is a continuous process. You should never become complacent. The world out there is competitive. Sometimes you will have to face tough situations,” he said.
Many people still lived in rural areas and they had little access to healthcare. Hospital costs were quite high and beyond the reach of the poor in the country. To meet the shortage of doctors, the government should come up with a holistic medicine system, he said.
In the current day, allopathic system of medicine held the upper hand, because it offered quick cures and was based on scientific data. Though Ayurveda too offered care for patients, there was still scope for collection of scientific data to back it, Dr. Shetty said.
Lavanya S. received the gold medal from the Secretary of the SDM Education Society B. Yashovarma. Shrilakshmi R. received a gold medal for highest marks in Sharira Rachana subject on the occasion.
K.R. Ramachandra, Principal of the college, Muralidhara Sharma, Medical Superintendent of SDM Ayurveda Hospital, G. Shrinivasa Acharya, Dean-Student Affairs, were present.
Despite needing 13 lakh doctors, India only has 6.5 lakh: expert
