At the 79th session of the WHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia, India highlighted the expansion of medical, nursing and allied-health capacity and the challenge of delivering specialised care to rural, tribal and underserved populations. The regional meeting also adopted the Dili Declaration on equity in specialised care.
The policy issue is not only the total number of doctors or seats. Distribution, skill mix, public-sector retention, referral systems and the availability of specialists determine whether capacity translates into access. This makes human resources for health a governance and equity problem as much as an education problem.