Rural Health Statistics Report 2021-22

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News? 
• What is Rural Health Statistics Report? 
• What are Key Outcomes of Rural Health Statistics Report 2021-22?

Why in News?  

• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), on January 12^th, published the Rural Health Statistics Report 2021-22.  

What is Rural Health Statistics Report? 

• The Rural Health Statistics in an annual publication of MoHFW since the year 1992.
• This provides the data on health infrastructure including manpower up to 31^st March of every year.  
• The publication is based on the data uploaded by States/UTs on HMIS portal and published only after getting verified by respective States/UTs. 
• It serves as a vision document in identifying the gaps in the existing Healthcare Infrastructure and Human Resources in rural, urban and tribal areas of the country. 
• It also serves as an important source of information for citizens.

What are Key Outcomes of Rural Health Statistics Report 2021-22?

• Health Centers – 
  • As per norms, each sub center (SC) is supposed to cater to a population of 3,000-5,000, each Primary Health Centers (PHC) to a population of 20,000-30,000 and each Community Health Centers (CHC) to a population of 80,000-1,20,000.
  • The RHS estimates as of 31 March, 2022, has revealed that each SC catered to an average of 5691 people, each PHC to 36049 people and each CHC to 164027 people.
• Urban Health Statistics – 
  • There is a vacancy of 18.8% of doctors, 16.8% of pharmacists, 16.8% of lab technicians and 19.1% of staff nurses at the U-PHCs. 
  • The population covered by a U-PHC may vary from 50,000 to 75,000.
  • Urban Community Health Centre U-CHCs is set up as a referral facility for every 4-5 U-PHCs. The U-CHC caters to a population of 2,50,000 to 5 lakhs.
• Rise in Number of Allopathy Doctors – 
  • There has been an over 50% rise in the number of allopathy doctors in primary health centers since the launch of the National Rural Health Mission in 2005.
  • The allopathic doctors at PHCs have increased from 20,308 in 2005 to 30,640 in 2022.
• Shortage of Specialist Doctors – 

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Image Caption: Shortage of Specialists

• India is reeling under an acute shortage of specialist doctors, with a shortfall of nearly 80% of the required specialists at CHCs. 
  • CHCs are 30-bed block-level health facilities which are ideally supposed to provide basic care related to surgery, gynecology, pediatrics and general medicine.
  • There are 6,064 CHCs across India and the Health Ministry has been unsuccessful in meeting the requirement for specialist doctors in most of these centers.
• The report points out that there is a shortfall of specialist doctors, including surgeons (83.2%), obstetricians and gynecologists (74.2%), physicians (79.1%) and pediatricians (81.6%). 
• Apart from specialist doctors, there is also a shortage of female health workers and auxiliary nursing midwives, with up to 14.4% of these posts lying vacant in PHCs and SCs.

Q1) What is the role of Primary Health Centers (PHCs) in rural India?

PHC is the first contact point between village community and the medical officer. The PHCs were envisaged to provide an integrated curative and preventive health care to the rural population with emphasis on preventive and promotive aspects of health care.

Q2) What is a Community Health Centre?

The Community Health Centers (CHCs) which constitute the secondary level of health care were designed to provide referral as well as specialist health care to the rural population. Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) for CHCs were first released under National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in early 2007.

Source: 80% shortfall of specialist doctors in CHCs: Health Ministry report   |  The Print   |  PIB