shimla in august this year ruma devi a 70yearold resident of mordugh village in jogindernagar area of mandi district had to be carried for four kilometres to the nearest hospital ruma had injured her back after falling from stairs at hir house and couldnt be taken to hospital in a vehicle as the link road connecting the village had been blocked due to rains after treatment she was taken back to her village the same way she had been brought in a makeshift palanquinthe problem of access to health services in the mountainous himachal pradesh doesnt end with roads rather it starts here for an area of 55673 sq kms and a population of over 68 lakhs as per the 2011 census there are only over 4000 medical institutions and around 2400 doctors in the state according to the economic and statistics department figures for the year 2020 there are 588 primary health centres phcs 92 community health centres chcs and 2104 subcentres besides ayurvedic hospitals and dispensaries in the state but this is not sufficient according to experts health sector in himachal is ailing due to shortage of doctors mostly specialists and absence of medical infrastructure the projected population of the state at present is between 75 and 80 lakh and if the who health standards are followed himachal is lagging in doctorpopulation ratio of 1 doctor per 1000 people our projected population at present is 80 lakh and the total doctors in the state are 2413 there should be at least 8000 doctors in the state for this population as per who ideal doctorpeople ratio we have been demanding from the himachal government to recruit more doctors so that the state hospitals have at least 5000 doctors if not 8000 even uttarakhand has 4200 doctors way more than us says dr pushpender verma the president of the himachal pradesh medical officers association hpmoa verma says this is also the main reason behind brain drain in the state there are 6 medical colleges in the state what will happen to the passouts there are no recruitments here and this is resulting in brain drain there are at least 1000 mbbs doctors waiting appointments in the state but the government and policy makers dont care so where these doctors will go they will shift to other states adds verma according to state association of medical and dental college teachers samdcot president dr rajesh sood the state government must realise that doctors are the backbone of any health sector and without them you cant deliver better healthcare if you want good doctors to stay in himachal pradesh then you need to take care of them there should be a good recruitment and promotion policies for them also the medical infrastructure needs to be majorly improved in the state adds sharma lack of proper medical infrastructure in the state is also another reason specialists dont want to stay back in the name of medical equipment most hospitals just have ultrasound machines