Government Found a Board to Support the Skills of 6.4 Million Allied Health Professionals in India

Noticing the vital role of delivering health care in the country, played by healthcare professionals such as physiotherapists, pathology technologists and medical radiation technologists, the government now plans on setting up a distinct board for them to certain that they get standardized further professional development.

This move will acknowledge their hard work and efforts, hence, a platform for standardization of courses and curriculum will shortly be offered by the National Board for Allied Health Science in numerous fields, such as physiotherapy, optometry, speech language pathology, medical lab technology and radiography.

A study reveals that India lacks around 6.4 million allied health professionals which the nation is presently in need for, with the major gaps suffered by states like UP, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar.It added that the regulatory bodies or councils are meant to direct only doctors, dentists, nurses and pharmacists.

In 2013, the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) had submitted aprovisional roadmap via a report tothe ministry in chargefor starting a Board.

Vishwant Mehta, joint secretary of the Health ministry told that the setting up of a Board may lead to development ofcompetitive and qualified healthcare service providing professionals,which may take care of theday to day aspects of the medical professions while the specialized doctors can dedicate themselves only for diagnosis, treatment of diseases, and surgeries.

The chief aim of launching a board is to discourage unqualified people from working and practicing, all the while to sustain the standards of eligible healthcare providers.

The Health ministry, in order to deal with the problem of scarcity of 6.4 million allied health professionals, will establish one national and eight regional institutes of allied healthcare, nationwide, who would function as the centers of excellence. The same was also recommended in the study.

However, for their better management the central government will not fully fund them, rather government will only grant them land. Rest, for sustaining their operational costs the allied healthcare centers will be encouraged to come up with other ways on their own.