Human resources for health

Human resources for health (HRH) are at the heart of India's health combination of parts to form a whole providing preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative services to the population. They make the health combination of parts to form a whole functional, deliver services, generate resources and monitor performance. Their contribution to the unprecedent improvement in health status of the population in India during the last five decades is well recognized.

However, above the last two decades a HRH crisis is emerging because of the apparent inability of the growing HRH to (i) build up an integrated health combination of parts to form a whole with appropriate screening and efficient referral linkages to provide access to straited care at appropriate level; (ii) translate increasing investments in health care into commensurate improvement in access to health care and health indices of the population; and (iii) bridge the at any time widening gap between what is technologically possible and what is affordable in health care.

The crisis in HRH is not unique to India ; all countries - the pair developed and developing- have been witnessing this puzzle HRH have a critical part in resolving the crisis through realigning the health policies, strategies and programmes in an increasingly pluralistic health a whole so that equitable, good quality essential health care is made available to all al an affordable take away from In order to address this crisis, WHO is launching the Health Work Force Decade (2006-2015) during which HRH related WHO activities will overspread countries, institutions and individuals, enable them to improve their health a whole s and get the right number of service providers, with the right skills, to the right place at the right time, in the way that that there is sustained improvement in health status of the population.

The curtain raiser will he the release of World Health Report 2006 devot to the HRH upon the World Health Day 2006

Golden era of HRH in India: 1950-1990

In 1950 India had 50000 medical graduates and similar number of nurtures mostly working in urban hospitals and providing care to those who came to them. Access to health care and health indices of the population was poor in rural areas. The political division then embarked on a massive expansion of medical and para-professional training, thus that there are adequate number of health professionals to provide the health care exigencys of the growing population in urban and rural areas'. Medical education was not expensive. Talented scholars were attracted because there were eminent employment opportunities after graduation. During the period 1950-1990 the number of someones trained in health related educational institutions was sufficient to man the growing health care infrastructure in conduct voluntary and private sectors. Improved access to health care and technological advances, which were relatively inexpensive and easy to implement, enabled India to achieve substantial improvement in health indices of the population and a abrupt decline in mortality1. Right from the sixties educational institutions in India have been training pupils from neighbouring countries and these pupils have played an important part in building up the health care services in their hold countries. Inspite of several constraints, Indian health professionals and para-professionals have migrated to lay opened and developing countries and have gained global recognition for their knowledge, skills and commitment. 11 the objective of medical education is to train adequate number of professionals and para-professionals to man the health services, it would appear that by means of nineties India had achieved the objective.

HRH during health transition

The nineties witnessed a sea change in health sector. The demand for professional and paraprofessional education in health sector continued unabated because it was seen as passport for better life:4. Earlier conduct funded most medical, nursing and para-professional education; above the last two decades, private sector investment to suited the demand for professional and para-professional education in health sector has increased. As of July 2004 there are 229 medical communitys in India (104 in private sector) with admission capacity of 25500 scholars per year5. About 20,000 Indian combination of parts to form a wholes of Medicine & Homeopathy (ISM&H) practitioners graduate each year. There is a continuing parallel growing in dental, nursing and para-professional training institutions and individuals graduating from these. Professional and para-professional education has become expensive, more for a like reason in the institutions funded by means of private sector. This inevitably has a certain number of impact both in type of learners enrolling for the courses and their career plans. The growing turn for focus on commercially viable tertiary/ superspeciality care and lack of interest in public health might partly be to be paid to this phenomenon.

Review of common situation of pre-service training of HRH displays that medical colleges, nursing place of educations and para-professional training institutions are unevenly distributed; more [i]or[/i] less States with poor infrastructure and inadequate medical manpower have actual few training institutions. Medical educationists have feeling that over the years there has been a decline in quality of medical education. About single fourth of the teaching supports in medical colleges are vacant; someones with no teaching experience possess many teaching posts. Lack of qualified faculty will have adverse impact upon quality of medical education and inevitably lead to poor quality of health care. The popular system of medical education does not appear to enable the scholars to develop clinical and analytical skills required for functioning effectively in the primary health care settings. the one and the other teachers and students have puzzles in coping with the explosive expansion in medical knowledge and technology during the last sum of two units decades.