Kerala Has 1 Doctor Per 450 People, Double WHO Benchmark; Unemployment Predicted
Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala: According to Kerala State Medical Council’s data, the state has about one doctor for every 450 people, and the number keeps growing fast. The current number itself is more than double the World Health Organization’s benchmark of one per 1,000, The New Indian Express reported.
There are a total of 95,993 registered doctors since 1999 in Kerala and out of them as many as 34,141 (35.6%) joined between 2021 and 2026 (till October 8). However, according to an estimate by Dr Babu K V, the central working committee member of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) only about 80,000 of the registered doctors work in the state.
Dr Babu says the rise in the number of doctors is largely due to the spread of private medical colleges in the last five years, a trend that began about a decade ago. He further warned that if the trend continues, there will be a potential unemployment crisis among doctors and MBBS seats will go vacant as happened in Tamil Nadu this year.
Dr Babu urged the government to study the issue before allowing new medical colleges. According to Dr Ashik Basheer, the General Practitioners Association state president, the oversupply of medical graduates had further dragged down wages.
Despite all these development, many laments that affordable health care for patients is still a distant dream.
