BS RAWAT
NEW DELHI : India will have 2,500 new hospitals in the next five years thereby generating 2.5 million additional jobs, Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog has said.

By 2024, India is also likely to attain the WHO norm of having one doctor for every thousand patients, Dr Paul said.

Speaking at the launch of a certificate course on ‘Specialist Training To Tackle The Burden of NCDs’ organized by FICCI in New Delhi, Dr Paul stated that with the improvement in the ease of doing business in the private healthcare sector, new players will enter the healthcare industry which will not only create new job  opportunities but also provide better healthcare services in the country.

The industrial body, jointly with NITI Aayog, has been working on identifying innovative alternate methods of strengthening the number of specialized physicians in the country that can be scaled-up, especially for high burden ailments and conditions.

Dr Paul said, “The ECHO model of FICCI is unique in more than one ways, but what makes this program even more unique is the partnership with the industry”.

The NITI Ayog member also highlighted that the Central government has made provisions to double the number of UG seats in medical education by 2024, but attaining the required number of specialist physicians is a more difficult agenda.

Dr Paul further added that 80,000 post graduate medical seats will be added by 2024, with participation of private sector healthcare providers.

The FICCI-ECHO Diabetes Certification Course for GPs is a 20 weeks, tele-mentoring programme that will be firstly taken up as a pilot project to train 100 GPs on logical management of diabetic people.