With only allopathy doctors in the country, the ratio is 1:1596, however, the national average ratio of 1:921 also includes Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy and Ayush practitioners in the country.

Chennai: India has a healthy doctor population ratio of 1:921 as of December 2017 and has a national average of six doctors for every 10,000 people.

Tamil Nadu is way ahead of the national figures with eight doctors per 10,000 people and proving to be the medical capital Chennai has more than 18 doctors per 10,000.

With only allopathy doctors in the country, the ratio is 1:1596, however, the national average ratio of 1:921 also includes Ayurveda, Unani, Homeopathy and Ayush practitioners in the country.

There are more than seven lakh practitioners of alternative medicine in the country who make for a large share of the doctors in the country. Tamil Nadu also has the benefit of Siddha practitioners and major research institutes in the state.

Medical Council of India has more than 10 lakh medicos registered with the state branches of the council with Tamil Nadu constituting of more than one lakh medical practitioners registered with Tamil Nadu Medical Council.

“Tamil Nadu leads the national figures owing to 30 medical colleges and more number of registrations improve the doctor population ratio in the state,” said a senior official from State Health Department.

However, medicos say that other districts like Krishnagiri, Nagapattinam, Thiruvarur and Tiruvannamalai have a poor doctor population ratio, which fails to be determined because of lack of proper regulation.

“We expect that Clinical Establishment Act will help to analyse the figures and ensure proper distribution of doctors in all the districts. The increase in the number of medical seats in the country would help enhance the figures across the country,” said Dr G. R. Rabindranath, secretary, Doctors Association for Social Equality.