Some important doctor-patient ratio stats & figures:

Some important doctor-patient ratio stats & facts at present:

• Doctor patient ratio in India 1 doctor per 2000 patients overall.
• But in government sector and civil hospitals this ratio is actually 1 doctor per 10,000 patients. (#1, #2)
• As per info from the ministry's website, 57.3% of those practicing allopathy in India, do not have any medical qualification or degree. (#3)
• It takes an average of 10+ years in time and more than 300,000 USD ( ~> 2 Crore INR) to add 1 human doctor to the workforce, along with the other much needed infrastructure and regulatory requirements.
• Even in the best states, it will take 7+ years to reach the required 1:1000 ratio. In some states like Jharkhand , estimates suggest it will take 87 years to reach the required doctor:patient ratio.
• Approximately 2000 PHCs (a form of govt. hospitals for sub urban areas) have ZERO doctors posted. Many have only 1 doctor posted. (#5)
• Some researches online show that in rural areas as high as 39% of the doctors are absent from their duty. (#5)
• Doctor patient ratio in African countries 1:50,000 i.e 1 doctor is available per 50,000 patients.
• Global target as per WHO is to have a ratio of 1:1000 (bare minimum, should be better)
• Waiting time /delay in getting medical advice and Cost of medical advice 2 most harassing factors for patients worldwide. (#6)
• Human physicians avoid working in remote areas after 10-12 years of rigorous study and spending.
• Average time given per patient by a physician in OPDs should be 15 minutes. Which is less than 2 minutes in most developing nations. As per a WHO study the average time a patient gets from a doctor in OPDs in India is 2 minutes 20 seconds. And this is the average, which means many patients are getting less time than this.
• In 2-3 minutes neither the patient can fully express themselves nor the doc can finish a thorough history and examination.
• Above all the doctor cannot give a detailed and empathic explanation of what’s going on and why is he prescribing a treatment or investigation. This leads to patient dissatisfaction.
• High waiting times of more than 2-3 weeks to see a government sector doctor in many big hospitals.
• Getting a bed has an even longer waiting time. Sometimes even months in waiting.
• Majority patients in developing countries avoid seeing a doctor till it's too late for fear of high cost as well as not knowing how serious the condition is. What to do, where to go, who to ask? is too stressful to manage and avoiding a symptom is easy.
• Sexual health, Mental health and Women health are the areas most neglected not only because of this skewed ratio of doctors to patients but also because of shyness and social taboos associated with these health issues.
• Some stats from Big Hospitals
• AIIMS (#7)
• Average no. of patients managed per annum = 40 Lakhs (many are left out waiting)
• No. of beds ~ 2500 only
• No. of doctors <500 only
• PGI Chandigarh (#8)
• Average no. of patients managed per annum = 25 Lakhs (many are left out waiting)
• No. of beds ~1800
• No. of doctors < 500
• And these doctor’s are also not all into clinical work.
• And they are not available 24x7
• People need medical advice all the time.
• As per google 90% of its users have searched for some symptoms or health related query more than once. (#9)
• Every 3 minutes someone is searching for their symptoms as per ada healthcare app.
• Every year 1,37,000 people die in road accidents in India. Every 4 minutes someone dies in a road accident. Most common problem is they don’t know where to go , what to do.?After rushing to a near-by hospital, most hospitals don’t have the necessary equipment like CT scans or neurosurgeons and Orthopaedicians and need referring to higher centres, which not only wastes a lot of time but also, reduces chances of survival multifold.?
• A big number of people go to quacks and delay getting proper medical advice in time.
• Most of the healthcare data is unorganised and people misplace their old medical records.
• Chatbots like ZINI.ai can help users get immediate medical advice.
• And also get genuine medical advice from an AI instead of going to quacks and other untrained people.
• ZINI.ai can also help them keep this data safe and secure tied to a unique QR code based GHID for safe keeping and sharing at any time.
• ZINI.ai also has an emergency medical data management system that can be augmented further with government support to help patients get more timely advice in emergency situations. It may help save some lives at least.
• Use of AI and chatbots can be a boon, specially in regional languages to guide people on their healthcare queries and needs.
• Some global players in the area are doing good
• Babylon: This is a british app. Same process as ours, but the company has tied up with govt. of Rawanda to install health chatbots in all it’s government hospitals. Babylon also got a deal to incorporate their symptom checker chatbot in Wechat messenger.
• Your.MD: This is another british app. Has acquired around 1 million users worldwide. Not so popular in India yet.
• ADA: This is a german application. Has acquired more then 2 million users worldwide. Growing steadily.
• More such incorporation in Government, Private and NGO setups will be seen in future to provide proper and immediate medical advice to billions of people world wide in coming years.
• Technologies that help address pain points of Common people and End users / patients should be focussed on. While most health-tech companies are busy in making B2B hospital solutions, which is not bad, focussing on the end user who needs medical advice is also very very important.

These were some important stats of the current age. Please share this article as much as possible to promote awareness on the reality of the situation. This awareness promotes authorities, governments and investors to put in efforts in this area and helps startups, researchers and social workers like us to continue putting in our efforts.

Feel free to share your views and comments. Thank you for your support.

P.S: You can also participate in this short survey created by us to gather more data.

Thank you once again for reading.

Have a nice day.