India needs to augment its healthcare capacity to meet the growing demands as the country would need over 2.4 million doctors besides over two million hospital beds in the next decade, stressed Dr K Chiranjeevi, Minister of State for Tourism, Government of India, while inaugurating the international conference on recent advances in obstetrics and gynaecology in Hyderabad.

Pointing out at the challenges India is facing especially in curtailing the infant mortality rate and maternal mortality rate, Dr Chiranjeevi expressed his concern that every year 1.72 million infant deaths and 56,000 maternal deaths are reported in the country.

He stressed the need for India to build its capacity to meet the future demand of its healthcare sector by inducting more doctors and augmenting the capacity of hospital beds to meet the demands of the next decade. “As half of rural country is beyond the reach of good Medicare the Indian healthcare sector has got massive challenges to meet, while at the same time has huge potential waiting to be tapped,” said the Minister.

Sharing the concerns of the government on the 1.72 million infant deaths besides 56,000 maternal deaths reported in India every year, Dr K Chiranjeevi said that initiatives by National Rural Health Mission, besides many other special programmes, have been introduced to address these critical health care issues. He opined that infant and maternal mortality can be tackled through a three pronged strategy of crisis management, timely care and cure through early diagnosis of the problem.

The inaugural of the international conference was attended by Prof. Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran, president-FIGO; Dr C N Purandare, president Elect-FIGO; Dr Hema Divakar, president-FOGSI; Dr Shantakumari, vice president- FOGSI; Dr Nozer Sheriar, secretary general – FOGSI; Indian Badminton Player P V Sindhu besides doctors and experts in the field of medical profession.

The three-day international conference on ‘Recent Advances in Obstetrics & Gynaecology’ is organised by FOGSI in association with FIGO to further strengthen the maternal healthcare delivery services in the country.