Role, Burdens, and Burnout of India's Primary Health Centre Doctors
UPSC Relevance
Prelims: Social Development (Public Health); Social Sector Initiatives & Schemes (National Health Mission, Ayushman Bharat, ICDS, RBSK); Governance (e-Governance in Health).
Mains:
General Studies Paper 2 (Health, Governance, Social Justice): Issues relating to development and management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health; Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections; Government policies and interventions; Role of civil services in a democracy. The challenges of the public health system at the grassroots level is a core GS2 topic.
General Studies Paper 1 (Society): Population and associated issues.
Key Highlights from the News
The doctors at Primary Health Centres (PHC) are the foundation of the Indian public health system.
Beyond providing treatment, they have numerous responsibilities, including implementing public health programs, conducting disease surveillance, and training frontline workers like ASHA workers.
However, they are under immense physical and mental stress due to crushing clinical load, administrative overload, and staff shortages.
Having to maintain over a hundred physical registers, along with entering the same data into multiple digital portals like IHIP, HMIS, UWIN, doubles their workload.
This excessive burden leads to a state called burnout among doctors, causing emotional exhaustion and frustration. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recognized this as an occupational phenomenon.
Achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and SDG Goal 3 requires ensuring the well-being of primary care doctors and providing them with better working conditions.
The article suggests reducing administrative tasks, simplifying documentation, and recruiting more staff to assist doctors as ways forward.
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