Indian Public Health Standards and Human Resources Requirements

Context: The government of India in the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare adopted Indian Public Health Standards in place of the Bureau of Indian Standards. The aim was to provide simpler norms to set up new and upgradation of existing health facilities, workforce required, and kind of services ensured in the country through the National Rural Health Mission despite several deficiencies in the terms of number of facilities and workforce evident.

Aims and objectives: Analysis of the pros and cons of inadequate coverage could be the main aims and objectives of this paper.

Methods and Material: Identification of gaps in terms of several facilities, workforce, and logistics done under the premises of materials such as ‘Rural Health Survey Bulletins, ‘MIS on NRHM’, Census 2011, and ‘Indian Public Health Standards. In addition, almost 100 case studies of health facilities in different states were performed.

Results: A shortfall of approximately 100914 Health Sub Centers or HSCs, 17399 Primary Health Centers or PHCs, 5728 Community Health Centers or CHCs, and 1476 Sub Divisional Hospital or First Referral Units or FRUs in the country. The workforce required to run these facilities is also hugely deficient. Such data further revealed that approximately 40.7 percent, 42.36 percent, 55.77 percent, and 60.99 percent populations of the country are not covered by any Health Sub Centers, Primary Health Centers, Community Health Centers, and Sub Divisional Hospitals or First Referral Units respectively.

Conclusions: Indian Public Health Standards not properly implemented. Although several states geared up to set up new health facilities and gradation existing health facilities to the tune of IPHS despite lack of workforce emerged main hindrance and this was acknowledged by authorities from time to time.

Key messages: It required to produce, acquire, develop, and retain a workforce in adequate numbers and expansion and setting up health facilities according to the existing workforce either in the health department or in the market before ensuring this investment in infrastructure or logistics would be waste, as this research observed.