India considers allowing expatriate doctors to practise back home

A proposal to lure back from overseas doctors with Indian backgrounds to solve the country’s chronic shortage of trained staff has run into opposition.

India has a desperate need for more medical staff, with rural areas in particular struggling to recruit and retain medical staff.

The country needs another 600 000 doctors, a million more nurses, and 200 000 more dental surgeons.

To fill the shortfall India’s government wants to relax the rules so that doctors with the status of “overseas citizenship of India” (OCI) can also practise there. OCI is the term the government uses for people …