Between 2021-22 and 2024-25, the average daily outpatient (OP) numbers in
Tamil Nadu’s public tertiary hospitals increased by 49%, while the number
of hospital beds grew by 37%. As more patients visit hospitals and infrastructure
expands, having enough staff becomes very important. This raises a key question:
has the state’s health workforce grown enough to meet this increasing demand? In
workers to handle the growth?
Over the years, Tamil Nadu’s health infrastructure has improved a lot.
The state now has more than 11,000 government health facilities, including 2,336 primary health centres (PHCs), 8,713 health sub-centres (HSCs), and 372 government hospitals.hospitals, and 36 government medical college hospitals. The addition of new multi- and
super-speciality hospitals, upgrades to existing hospitals, and the introduction of many
health schemes have made healthcare more accessible to the public.
However, while the state government has spent a lot on building and improving hospitals,
the investment in hiring and training enough health workers has not kept pace. This raises
concerns about whether the health system can sustain its expansion effectively.