Hyderabad: The second wave of Covid-19 has exposed how fragile India's health fabric is. From the shortage of beds and oxygen to medicines, everything is making headlines these days.
As a record number of people die following the collapse of the healthcare system, a simple question arises as to why the world’s second-most populous country has such a poor healthcare infrastructure. How fine-tuned is the health facility in the States in terms of beds, doctors, the number of hospitals and other such things are taken as a real indicator of a state’s healthcare or that of the country.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), there should be one doctor for every 1000 people. But most of the states in the country do not meet the norm and have a shortage of doctors as well as other facilities including the required number of beds.
RAJASTHAN
Rajasthan has a population of about 7 crores. There are about 50 thousand doctors in the State. According to this, there is one doctor for about 1400 people in Rajasthan. There are 16 government and eight private medical colleges in the state. There are about 1.5 lakh beds in hospitals across the State. This means that there is one bed available for 466 people. The state has one AIIMS, which operates in the Jodhpur district of Rajasthan.
BIHAR
Bihar is one of the worst states in terms of health facilities. This can be gauged from the fact that there is one doctor for the population of more than 28 thousand in the state. The population of Bihar is more than 13 crore and the health budget of the state is Rs 13,264 crore. AIIMS in Patna is considered to be the best hospital in the state.
MADHYA PRADESH
The health budget of Madhya Pradesh is more than Rs 15 thousand crores. There is one doctor for every 2000 people in the state with a population of about 7.5 crores. Apart from AIIMS, there are 20 medical colleges, 1199 PHCs and 334 CHCs in the state.
JHARKHAND
Jharkhand has a population of about 40 million and has one doctor for about 18,518 people and one bed for about 2500 people. This data reveals the truth about the health facilities of the state. Jharkhand also has 24 district hospitals, three government and one private medical college. The construction work for AIIMS is going on in Deoghar, though OPD services have started.
CHHATTISGARH
There are about 11 thousand doctors in Chhattisgarh with a population of more than two and a half crore. The state has only one doctor for every 2500 people. There are 369 government and 62 private hospitals here. The number of beds in the state is 31,649, which means that there is a provision of one bed for about 800 people in the state.
KARNATAKA
The health budget of the state of Karnataka with a population of more than seven crores is about Rs 12 thousand crores. There are a total of 57,844 doctors and 70 thousand beds in the state. Accordingly, Karnataka has a doctor for every 1200 people and a bed for every 1000 people.
TAMIL NADU
Tamil Nadu has a population of about 7 crores and there are about 2 doctors for every thousand people. There are 44 hospitals along with 15 medical colleges, 29 District Hospitals, 235 Sub Divisional Hospitals, 8706 CHCs and 1421 PHCs. The state has more than 61,000 hospital beds. The health budget of the state is Rs 19420 crore. The construction work of AIIMS in Tamil Nadu has not yet started.
KERALA
The south Indian state of Kerala is on the top when it comes to health facilities and the number of doctors per thousand people. The population of Kerala is around 3.5 crore and there is one doctor for every 400 people. In addition to seven government-run medical colleges in Kerala, there are 58 government hospitals while there are more than 225 private hospitals.
HIMACHAL PRADESH
The population of the hill state of Himachal Pradesh is around 70 lakh and its health budget is more than Rs 3 thousand crores. There is one doctor for every 3470 people in the state. The construction work of AIIMS is going on at Bilaspur, Himachal Pradesh.
MAHARASHTRA
There are more than 110000 doctors in Maharashtra, which has a population of more than 12 crores. According to this, there is one doctor for every 1100 people in Maharashtra. In Maharashtra, there are 30 thousand beds for every one and a half crore population. There are 72 government hospitals and 142 private hospitals in the state. Maharashtra's health budget is of Rs 7500 crore. There is an AIIMS at Nagpur, Maharashtra.
UTTARAKHAND
The health budget of the hill state of Uttarakhand is Rs 3320 crore. There are around 2500 to 3000 doctors in the State. There is one doctor for a population of about 5000 people. The total number of private and government hospitals in the state is 135 which have 11,600 beds. AIIMS is located at Rishikesh, Uttarakhand.
JAMMU KASHMIR
There are a total of 3289 health centres in Jammu and Kashmir which include 20 District Hospitals, 77 community centers, six emergency hospitals, 427 primary, 2013 Sub-Centres and 9 maternity and child centres. Apart from this, there are also about 50 private health centers. Jammu and Kashmir has a total of 3225 doctors and about 1300 beds. According to this, there is one doctor for 1880 people.
