Thevar Steffy

Each one visits a doctor for 4 to 5 times a year. (Reference cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/physici… ) In case of those aged > 45 it may be 12 times. In case of those aged <5 it may be 7 to 8 times. So, each one visits doctor for 8 times a year Assume a doctor (primary care physician ) spends 5 minutes for a patient and spends 5 hours in outpatient clinic. In addition to other duties in a PHC, a doctor can manage 50 outpatient per day. Working 6 days a week, this translates to 300 OP per week and that is 16000 OP per year So a primary care physician is needed for a population of 2000 For a population of 10000, we need 5 MBBS doctors, 5 MD / MS Doctors and 5 Super specialists -oOo- That is 15 doctors for 10000 15000 doctors for 1 crore 100000 doctors for TN population Anything more than this will collapse the system And Since there are only 10 lakh birth per year MBBS Seats must be restricted to 1500 MD MS to 1000 DM MCh to 500 Anything more than this is disaster Tamil Nadu has reduced TFR and Increased MBBS, MD/MS, DM/ MCh Seats for the past so many years We are already in the disaster phase with no signs of turning back or doing course correction At present We have 13000 MBBS Graduates per year. We need only 1500 We are producing 9 times the demand We have 5000 MD / MS Graduates per year We need only 1000 We are producing 5 times the demand Actually This is not just a doctors' problem It is a bigger problem for patients too Patients also will suffer If a doctor does only 2 LSCS in a year what will be the skill level Many people think that doctors over working is a problem and errors can occur due to fatigue Underworking doctors is also a problem because of lack of practice and subsequent decline in skill levels -oOo- The raised cost of healthcare are due to various factors 1. More treatment availability 2. Consumer Courts 3. Ratings 4. Accredidations 5. Insurance Healthcare professionals Fees is less than 15 percent of the hospital bill and doctors fees is 10 percent only Sadly People assume that Healthcare costs will come down if number of doctors are increased