Stating that medical council of India and nursing council of India have not been able to provide required medical professionals in India, NITI Aayog has recommended enactment of National Medical Commission Bill. The Strategy for New India @75 by NITI Aayog was released recently. The document underlines the gross variations in availability of medical professionals in rural and urban settings. Urban areas have “four times as many doctors and three times as many nurses as compared to rural areas”, the vision document of the central government think tank states. According to the report, the current nurse-population ratio in India is 1:588. It blames shortage of nurses in India on “suboptimal quality of training offered by several institutions that have mushroomed over years, limited career prospects and poor working conditions, especially in the private sector”. The Aayog expresses concern over de-motivating compensation for nurses in private sector. “Fair compensation in private sector for nurses, is a challenge,” it says. The council has recommended revamping of AYUSH, nursing, dentistry and pharmacy councils along the lines of the NMC Bill, 2017. The documents also calls for establishment of a “Council for Allied Health Professionals to ensure standardization of education and putting in place quality control mechanisms for educational institutions, teaching methods, clinical protocols and workforce management”. In order to do away with unregulated nursing institutions, NITI Aayog recommends a nursing school in every large district or cluster of districts with a population of 20-30 lakhs as per National Health Policy, 2017. It also calls for steps to revamp regulatory system of nursing education, ensure quality training in nursing schools, develop specialties in nursing, develop centres of excellence in nursing and enhance stature of government nurses.
NITI Aayog recommends revamping of nursing education
