India may face extreme shortage of trained healthcare professionals: Expert

Chandigarh, May 12, 2022: As many as 150 students along with faculty and staff attended a talk to mark International Nurses Day at University Institute of Nursing, Chandigarh University Gharuan on Thursday. 
Addressing talk, Dr Deepak Puri, global chairman of Cardiomersion and director of cardiovascular thoracic surgery at Max Hospital, Mohali said that nurses play a vital role in healthcare management yet their contributions even today goes unrecognized.
He said, this has come more into limelight ever since the onset of Covid pandemic . There is an extreme shortage of nurses worldwide. In India 4.3 million more nurses will be required by 2024 while the deficiency is also present in several developed countries like the USA, he pointed out.
Dr Puri also highlighted that the workplace environment is also becoming more and more hostile and most of the healthcare workers are not getting adequate rest due to which they are suffering from adverse effects of sleep deprivation.
Several surveys have shown that life expectancy of healthcare professionals is 5 to 10 years less than remaining population and doctors and nurses are also more prone to acquire lifestyle diseases like diabetes, mellitus, hypertension, coronary artery disease, ,stroke ,cancers ,depression and suicidal tendencies, he asserted.
Several other factors which are adversely affecting the healthcare professionals are lack of career growth opportunities, lack of adequate skill enhancing training, grossly inadequate compensation which is 10 times less than what they get in the USA, he opined.
“All these are mainly responsible for the fact that 50% fresh nurses are going abroad within 2 years and India is now the biggest exporter of healthcare professionals,”
The long term impact of all this is going to be devastating, Dr Puri emphasized. Indian doctors and nurses are considered among the best in the world and have earned lots of respect and fame in countries like USA, UK and Australia and form the backbone of healthcare of these nations , he said adding it is high time we give due recognition to those who declined lucrative offers from overseas and preferred to serve their own nation which is fast heading towards extreme shortage of adequate trained healthcare professionals.
Among others, principal of Nursing College Dr Jyoti Tiwari, vice principal Satheesh Kumar and other senior faculty members were also present during the occasion.