India expands medical education; number of medical colleges more than doubled since 2014
In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the minister also said that postgraduate medical seats increased from 31,185 to 86,360 during the same period.
The minister said the establishment of new medical colleges in remote and underserved areas and expansion of MBBS seats are expected to increase the availability of doctors and strengthen healthcare delivery across the country.
Patel also highlighted the Family Adoption Program (FAP) integrated into the MBBS curriculum.
Under the program, medical colleges adopt villages while MBBS students adopt families in these villages to ensure regular follow-up on immunization, growth monitoring, menstrual hygiene, iron and folic acid supplementation, nutrition, healthy lifestyle practices, vector control and medication compliance.
He noted that the District Residency Program (DRP) launched by the National Medical Commission (NMC) mandates a three-month posting in district hospitals for postgraduate medical students as part of their training.
The program aims to strengthen health services in rural and underserved areas. Responding to a question on the impact of Ayushman Arogya Mandirs, Patel said an evaluation commissioned by NITI Aayog found encouraging results, including higher community participation due to improved infrastructure and increased access to comprehensive primary healthcare.
The study noted that non-communicable diseases (NCD) care, outpatient services, free medicines and diagnostic facilities were better.
According to the minister, the deployment of Community Health Officers has strengthened frontline healthcare delivery, while digital platforms such as e-Sanjeevani have expanded access to expert consultations.
Patel said that under the National Health Mission (NHM), the performance of health programs is regularly monitored through review meetings, field visits, interim evaluations, service delivery benchmarks and annual Joint Review Missions.
The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has launched several initiatives to improve service delivery, including integrated training modules in collaboration with regional training institutes, Swasth Bharat Portal to increase digital interoperability and greater use of Medicines and Vaccines Distribution Management System to strengthen medicine inventory and supply chain management.
He added that the ministry has also issued revised guidelines for village health, sanitation and nutrition committees and Jan Arogya Samitis to increase community participation, developed standardized information, training and communication materials for outreach to beneficiaries and introduced incentive mechanisms at Ayushman Arogya Mandirs to increase retention of healthcare personnel.
