There have been many articles, research papers and writeup on this topic available on the web. As part of a research project, I managed to gather some data points for understanding the State of HealthCare in India. Thorough this post, would like to share my findings and provide some references for a better understanding on this subject.Economically, India has been consistently growing at over 8% GDP every year for the last 3 years and if the Economists prediction goes right, we will continue to grow the same way for the next few years.

HealthCare is one of the key parameters in which a country’s Development and stature are measured. To begin this discussion, let us first understand the structure of HealthCare in the Indian Context.

Primary Health Care is essential health care; based on practical, scientifically sound, and socially acceptable method and technology; universally accessible to all in the community through their full participation; at an affordable cost; and geared toward self-reliance and self-determination (WHO & UNICEF, 1978).

The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified five key elements to achieving this objective:

• Reducing exclusion and social disparities in health (universal coverage reforms)
• Organizing health services around people’s needs and expectations (service delivery reforms)
• Integrating health into all sectors (public policy reforms)
• Pursuing collaborative models of policy dialogue (leadership reforms); and
• Increasing stakeholder participation.

Primary HealthCare in India

In 1947, the year of India’s independence, average life expectancy was 29 years and today, in just 63 years, it has reached 65 years. According to estimates, it will reach 74 Years by 2025. There are many reasons for this impressive progress in life expectancy in India and one of the key reasons is the maturity of the Primary Health Care facilities and services in India.

PHC was conceptualized in 1946, three decades before the Alma Ata declaration, with the recommendations of the Bhore committee, that laid emphasis on social orientation of medical practice and high level of public participation. The government followed it up with setting the Community Development Plan in the 1^st 5 year plan (1951-55) and Health Survey and Planning Committee in the 2^nd 5 year plan.

Primary HealthCare as a key initiative has been an Objective only in the 9^th 5 Year Plan (1997-2002).

• Department of Women and Child Welfare (DoWCW) is responsible for the overall implementation of HealthCare schemes in India.
• The Central Government is responsible for providing funds for HealthCare infrastructure across the country.
• The State Government is responsible for allocation of funds to respective regions and building up the personnel and HealthCare facilities across the state.
• At times of emergency, the Central Government is responsible for collecting and distributing Medicine’s and required support to the state/region.
• The Government provides a three-tier (Primary, Tertiary and Secondary) support structure for addressing the HealthCare needs across the country.

Primary HealthCare Center’s form the second tire in the system (Secondary Care) and each PHC is a hub for 6 Sub-Center’s. A PHC typically has a 4-6 beds for addressing immediate and basic Health Care necessities.

Community Health Center (CHC)

CHC forms the third tier in the system.

• A CHC has 1 Surgeon, 1 Physician, 1 Gynecologist and 1 Pediatrician along with 21 Paramedical Staff.
• CHC is a 30 bed facility.
• 1 CHC for 4 PHC’s.

Now, let us look at the core data of HealthCare Infrastructure in India.

Personnel Availability

	Required	In Position	Shortfall
CHC	6491	4276	2337
PHC	26022	23458	4477
Sub-Center	158792	146036	20486
Doctors at PHC	23458	24380	3537
Multipurpose Worker (Female) at PHC & SC	169494	153537	21066
Nurse MidWife	53390	44940	18017
Only ANM	19385	21313	1841
Health Assistant (Female)	23458	17599	6481
Health Assistant (Male)	23458	17972	8827
Health Worker (Male)	146036	60247	79322
Laboratory Technician	27734	12885	14135
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (PHC)	4042	1029	2576
Obstetricians and Gynecologists (Other Location)	219	143	115
Peadiatrician (PHC)	4042	791	2814
Peadiatrician (Other Location)	219	73	146
Pharmacists	27734	20964	7017
Physicians (PHC)	4042	1043	2562
Physicians (Other Location)	219	81	138
Radiographers	4276	1695	2280
Surgeons	234	81	142
All Specialists at PHCs	17104	4279	11033
Total	739849	556822	209349

Infrastructure – (District Hospitals, Ayurvedic Dispensaries & Hospitals, Family Welfare Center and Referral Hospitals)

State	District Hospitals	Ayurvedic Dispensaries	Ayuevedic Hospitals	City Family Welface Center	Referral Hospitals
Andhra Pradesh	16	557	9	0
Assam	22	380	1	0
Arunachal Pradesh	14	2	1	0
Bihar	25	311	11	12	70
Chhattisgarh	16	634	8	0
Goa	2	77	1	0
Gujarat	23	493	48	106	409
Haryana	21	472	8	0
Himachal Pradesh	12	1109	25	0
Jammu & Kashmir	14	273	2	0
Jharkhand	24	122	1	0
Karnataka	27	589	122	2	57
Kerala	14	740	124	0
Madhya Pradesh	50	1427	34	0
Maharastra	23	469	55	0
Manipur	7	0	0	4	8
Meghalaya	5	12	1	0
Mizoram	8	0	0	0
Nagaland	11	85	0	0
Orissa	32	624	8	0
Punjab	20	507	15	0
Rajasthan	33	3539	100	0
Sikkim	4	1	1	0
Tamil Nadu	27	35	7	104	100
Tripura	2	55	1	0
Uttar Pradesh	71	340	1771	0
Uttaranchal	18	467	7	0
West Bengal	16	295	4	0
Andaman & Nicobar	3	5	1	0
Chandigarh	1	6	1	0
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	1	3	0	0	1
Daman and Diu	2	1	0	0
Lakshadweep	1	2	0	0
New Delhi	9	148	10	0
Pondicherry	4	16	1	0
Total	578	13796	2378	228	645

Infrastructure – Homeopathic Dispensary & Hospitals, Medical Colleges, Unani Dispensaries/Hospitals

State	Homeopathic Dispensary	Homeopathic Hospitals	Medical Colleage	Rural Dispensaries	Unani Dispensaries	Unani Hospitals
Andhra Pradesh	286	6	32		196	6
Assam	75	3	3		1	–
Arunachal Pradesh	44	2			–	–
Bihar	179	11	8	366	144	4
Chhattisgarh	52	3	3		6	1
Goa	59	1	1		–	–
Gujarat	216	14	13	8347	–	–
Haryana	20	1	3		19	1
Himachal Pradesh	14	1	2		3	–
Jammu & Kashmir	0	0	4		235	2
Jharkhand	54	2	3		30	–
Karnataka	42	20	36	176	51	13
Kerala	580	33	18		1	–
Madhya Pradesh	146	22	8		50	2
Maharastra	0	45	39		25	5
Manipur	9	1	1	42	–	–
Meghalaya	10	7			–	–
Mizoram	1	0			–	–
Nagaland	115	1			–	–
Orissa	603	6	4		9	–
Punjab	107	5	7		35	–
Rajasthan	178	9	8		102	3
Sikkim	1	0	1		–	–
Tamil Nadu	46	9	25	1421	21	1
Tripura	93	1	2		–	–
Uttar Pradesh	1482	8	16		49	210
Uttaranchal	60	1	3		3	2
West Bengal	1220	12	9		3	1
Andaman & Nicobar	15	1			–	1
Chandigarh	5	1	1		–	–
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	1	0		3	–	–
Daman and Diu	0	0			–	–
Lakshadweep	1	0			–	–
New Delhi	98	2	5		25	2
Pondicherry	7	0	8		–	–
Total	5819	228	263	10355	1008	254

State wise Population to Infrastructure availability

State	Population	Sub Center	PHC	CHC	Doctor
Andaman & Nicobar Islands*	356,265	3,125	18,751	89,066	4,880
Andhra Pradesh	75,727,541	6,048	48,234	453,458	34,204
Arunachal Pradesh	1,091,117	1,843	9,406	24,798	12,542
Assam	26,638,407	5,801	31,562	258,625	65,290
Bihar	82,878,796	9,356	50,505	1,183,983	52,958
Chandigarh*	900,914	64,351		450,457
Chhatisgarh	20,795,956	4,386	28,843	152,911	24,125
Dadra & Nagar Haveli*	220,451	5,801	36,742	220,451	36,742
Daman & Diu*	158,059	7,185	52,686	158,059	26,343
Delhi*	13,782,976	336,170	1,722,872		599,260
Goa	1,343,998	7,814	70,737	268,800	30,545
Gujarat	50,596,992	6,956	47,155	185,337	49,654
Haryana	21,082,989	8,665	50,198	245,151	60,237
Himachal Pradesh	6,077,248	2,934	13,535	83,250	14,932
Jammu & Kashmir	10,069,917	5,281	26,853	118,470	22,328
Jharkhand	26,909,428	6,799	81,544	138,708	81,544
Karnataka	52,733,958	6,476	24,025	163,263	18,562
Kerala	31,838,619	6,250	35,026	297,557	18,383
Lakshadweep*	60,595	4,328	15,149	20,198	10,099
Madhya Pradesh	60,385,118	6,836	52,554	223,649	57,951
Maharashtra	96,752,247	9,146	53,278	237,721	81,236
Manipur	2,388,634	5,687	33,175	149,290	20,771
Meghalaya	2,306,069	5,751	22,389	88,695	21,755
Mizoram	891,058	2,435	15,633	99,006	17,136
Nagaland	1,988,636	5,009	23,124	94,697	25,173
Orissa	36,706,920	5,488	28,700	158,904	27,130
Pondicherry*	973,829	12,647	24,970	243,457	14,321
Punjab	24,289,296	8,499	50,184	192,772	120,842
Rajasthan	56,473,122	5,257	37,574	161,814	36,623
Sikkim	540,493	3,677	22,521	135,123	12,869
Tamil Nadu	62,110,839	7,134	51,120	301,509	27,483
Tripura	3,191,168	5,512	41,989	290,106	12,514
Uttar Pradesh	166,052,859	8,092	45,001	322,433	82,985
Uttaranchal	8,479,562	4,804	35,479	154,174	9,792
West Bengal	80,221,171	7,746	86,819	229,860	99,038
Total	1,027,015,247	7,033	2,988,332	7,595,753	1,830,246

I will append more information as I get to learn more.

Most of the data was taken from Ministry of Family and Child Welfare (http://www.mohfw.nic.in) and also from search, papers and other websites. I ensured that I do not violate any copyright information.