Health Manpower Planning

ABSTRACT Manpower is the most crucial resource toward delivery of health planning. Health manpower refers to people who are trained to promote health, to prevent and to cure diseases, and to rehabilitate the sick. The aim of manpower planning is to make available the right kind of personnel in the right number with appropriate skills at the right place at the right time doing the right job. Various types of health resources are doctors, nurses, pharmacists, lab technicians, radiographer health assistants, health workers, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), accredited social health activists (ASHAs), anganwadi workers, trained dais, and so on. Currently, developing countries including India lag behind suggested norms of required health manpower. Presently, India produces 30,000 doctors, 18,000 specialists, 30,000 Ayurveda, Yoga and naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy (AYUSH) graduates, 54,000 nurses, 15,000 ANMs, and 36,000 pharmacists annually. This production is not equal across the states, leading to unequal distribution of doctors. Such a skewed distribution results in large gaps in demand and availability. Various reasons for this are skewed production of health manpower, uneven human resource deployment and distribution, disconnected education and training, lack of job satisfaction, professional isolation, and lack of rural experience. The 12th Plan should aim to expand facilities for medical, nursing, and paramedical education; create new skilled health worker categories; enable AYUSH graduates to provide essential health care by upgrading their skills in modern medicine through bridge courses; establish a management system for human resource in health to actualize improved methods for recruitment, retention, and performance; put in place incentive-based structures; create career tracks for professional advancement based on competence; and, finally, build an independent and professional regulatory environment. How to cite this article Chhina RS, Chhina RS, Sidhu A, Bansal A. Health Manpower Planning. Curr Trends Diagn Treat 2017;1(1):53-57.