Are all registered doctors serving in Pakistan?
There are 175,223 registered doctors in Pakistan. A simple analysis shows that a 13 percentage increase in total number of registered doctors from the year 2011-12 to 2014-15. Similarly currently there are some 15,106 registered dentists in the country and the number was 11,649 in 2011-12. Thus an increase of 23 percent has been witnessed in the total number of dentists over these years.
Likewise an increase of 14 percent has been witnessed vis-à-vis the number of registered nurses in Pakistan as there were 77,683 nurses in 2011-12 unlike 90,276 in 2014-15.
However when it comes to doctors and dentists one wonders are all of these registered medics are serving in Pakistan?
This article Number of Pakistani physicians working abroad; Do we really need to know? in the Journal of Pakistan Medical Association asks this hard question.
The article identifies “two groups of physicians leaving the country: those going abroad for postgraduate training and residency; and those doing so for better career incentives and monetary benefits and to avoid the deteriorating law and order situation and rising hostilities towards doctors in the last few years.”
The JPMA article deplores poor data regime vis-à-vis doctors leaving the country arguing that well documented stats “will help evaluate the dynamics of this oscillation and its impact on healthcare in the country.”
Main photo: Dawn.com
