Leveraging human capital to reduce maternal mortality in India: enhanced public health system or public-private partnership (original) (raw)

Human Resource Issues in Maternal and Neonatal Health in India

2016

One in seven women die from complications related to pregnancy or delivery in some of the African countries, compared to one in many thousands in Europe and North America. More than 95 per cent of maternal deaths occur in developing countries. In the developing countries complications of pregnancy mainly due to inadequate Emergency Obstetric Care (EmOC) is the leading cause of death among women of reproductive age. They account for 18 per cent of the burden of health disease in reproductive age group-more than any other single health problem (World Bank ,1993). At least 40 per cent of pregnant women experience some type of complication during their pregnancies. Most maternal complications and death occur either during or shortly after delivery and are difficult to predict. Nearly 15 per cent of complications are life-threatening that require immediate EmOC. However, many of them do not receive adequate EmOC. Hence, “Safe Motherhood” will remain a dream in the absence of adequate EmO...

Human Resource Challenges in the Public Health Sector in Rural India

The Journal of Institute of Public Enterprise, 40(1&2), 2017

Shortage of health workers in rural areas is one of the biggest problems faced in India's health sector. This paper examines the current status of health workforce and human resource challenges in the public health sector in rural India. The findings show that the public health sector in rural areas across the country has suffered from poor availability of health workers even after more than a decade of implementation of the National Rural Health Mission. The density of health workers is abysmally low compared to the global norms. The paper highlights various human resource challenges in the rural health sector, such as, health workers shortage, lack of female practitioners, large scale vacancy, unbalanced skill mix, uneven distribution of health workers among states, absenteeism, and the quality of medical education. The paper emphasises on a compact package of interventions comprising regulatory measures, monetary and non-monetary incentives, workforce management, public-private partnerships, and task shifting, etc. to ameliorate the shortage of health workers in rural areas.

Need for Increased Investment in Human Resource for Health in India: Estimating the Required Investment for Increased Production of Health Professionals for Achieving Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals by 2030

2021

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 has reinforced the importance of having sufficient, well-distributed and competent health workforce. In addition to improving health outcomes, increased investment has the potential to generate employment, increase labour productivity along with fostering economic growth. With COVID-19 highlighting the gaps in human resources for health in India, there is a need to better and empirically understand the level of required investment for increasing the production of health workforce in India for achieving the UHC/SDGs.METHODS: The study used data from a range of sources including National Health Workforce Account 2018, Periodic Labour Force Survey 2018-19, population projection of Census of India, and review of government documents and reports. The study estimated shortages in the health workforce and required investments to achieve recommended health worker: population ratio thresholds by the terminal year of the SDGs 2030.RESULTS: Our results suggest that to meet...

Health workforce in India: opportunities and challenges

International Journal Of Community Medicine And Public Health, 2019

Health system reforms in India during the past decade yielded an impressive growth of medical, dental and nursing education opportunities, but health workforce density remains low in comparison to the World Health Organization (WHO) norms. Apart from shortage, retaining qualified health workforce in the rural and underserved areas remains a huge challenge. This crisis is likely to persist until and unless health system addresses the fundamental requirements of health workers as envisaged in health policies. Concerted attention and long term political commitments are required to overcome health system barriers to achieve rural recruitment and retention across various cadres in states. As the major share of health workforce belongs to the private sector, their resources need to be harnessed to meet health system goals through partnerships and collaborations. There is an urgent need for better regulation and enforcement of standards in medical education and delivery of health services ...

Size, composition and distribution of health workforce in India: why, and where to invest?

Human Resources for Health, 2021

Background Investment in human resources for health not only strengthens the health system, but also generates employment and contributes to economic growth. India can gain from enhanced investment in health workforce in multiple ways. This study in addition to presenting updated estimates on size and composition of health workforce, identifies areas of investment in health workforce in India. Methods We analyzed two sources of data: (i) National Health Workforce Account (NHWA) 2018 and (ii) Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017–2018 of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO). Using the two sources, we collated comparable estimates of different categories of health workers in India, density of health workforce and skill-mix at the all India and state levels. Results The study estimated (from NHWA 2018) a total stock of 5.76 million health workers which included allopathic doctors (1.16 million), nurses/midwives (2.34 million), pharmacist (1.20 million), dentists (0.27 million), and tra...

Human resource management in Indian health system: Challenges and Opportunities

_______________________________________________________________________________________ Abstract The various issues related to human resource management in health sector are mainly related to health work force and health infrastructure. The new technology, modernization, computerization, newer diagnostic and intervention techniques, has not reduced the need of human labour in hospitals, which is an important in the health system. It mainly helps in maintaining sufficient health workforce in the Indian health system. To understand the current scenario and new initiatives adopted to deal with existing shortage of human resource for health. Organisational HRD efforts are usually directed towards commitment and competency development among the Health workers in India. This paper mainly highlights the high specialized manpower requirement at various levels in the health sector to boost quality control in patient care, and health infrastructure. The study was done using extensive review of literature on health sector, health workforce, its availability in India. The review included articles that had studies on physicians' availability, distribution, and training, attrition, emigration and retention in rural or urban areas from both developed and developing countries, and covering doctors, nurses, ANMs and medical colleges, nursing institutions.