India is expanding its hospital and diagnostics infrastructure rapidly, yet allied health roles continue to face shortages. What structural gaps in healthcare education and workforce planning are contributing to this mismatch between infrastructure growth and manpower availability?
India is expanding rapidly across hospitals, diagnostic centres, and tertiary care. We are building capacity at scale. However, workforce planning for allied health roles has not moved at the same pace. Today, India still faces a shortage of over 8 million allied health professionals and nurses, as estimated by the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and the World Health Organization (WHO).
The WHO and NITI Aayog estimate that allied health professionals make up nearly 60% of the healthcare workforce, yet education systems for these roles have remained fragmented. Training quality, faculty availability, and standardisation vary widely across states. While a dedicated national body focused on setting consistent standards for allied health education—the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) was established in 2021, its regulatory framework is expected to formally come into effect from the 2026–27 academic year.
As a result, we see an enormous gap today. Infrastructure is ready, demand is real, but the pipeline of trained, deployable professionals has not scaled in a structured way. This mismatch shows up in the quality of healthcare delivery every day.
Industry estimates point to a significant employability gap among allied health professionals. From a system perspective, what are the key reasons graduates struggle to transition effectively into real-world clinical environments?
The employability gap is largely about exposure. Many students graduate with a solid theoretical foundation but have limited time spent in real healthcare environments. Healthcare is a precision-driven, hands-on profession, you learn by being around patients, protocols, equipment, and multidisciplinary teams. When this exposure comes late or in an unstructured manner, the transition becomes difficult.
This is especially evident in diagnostics, operating theatres, and critical care, where precision, coordination, and confidence are expected from day one. Without early immersion, even motivated graduates take time to find their footing.
How important is closer collaboration between healthcare providers, academia, and industry in ensuring job-ready allied health professionals, and what models of engagement are proving most effective today?
Closer collaboration is no longer a good-to-have, it is essential. The most effective models are those where hospitals and diagnostic centres are actively involved during training itself. Co-designing curricula, enabling internships, providing structured exposure to real workflows, and facilitating interaction with practitioners make a meaningful difference.
When education is designed with continuous input from care providers, students graduate with stronger skills, clearer role understanding, and far greater confidence. This also shortens the learning curve once they enter the workforce, benefiting both patients and healthcare institutions.
With increasing adoption of advanced diagnostics, digital health tools, and specialised care pathways, how are skill requirements for allied health professionals evolving across hospitals and labs?
Skill requirements for allied health professionals are evolving rapidly. Healthcare is expanding beyond hospitals into retail chains and clinics; diagnostics is becoming more technology-led; and hospitals are adopting digital systems. AI and automation are increasingly part of daily workflows.
As a result, professionals today need more than technical skills. They must be comfortable with digital tools, data interpretation, and patient communication. This makes continuous upskilling critical. Allied and healthcare roles are no longer static, they are evolving careers that require ongoing learning.
Looking ahead, what policy-level or institutional reforms are needed to sustainably address the long-term shortage of allied health professionals while maintaining quality, standardisation, and patient safety?
Addressing the long-term shortage of allied health professionals will require sustained focus on standardisation, scale, and quality. The regularisation of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) is an important step towards bringing consistency to education standards and training frameworks. Over time, this can help reduce variability and improve trust in the system.
Equally important is recognising allied health education as a core pillar of healthcare delivery and building greater awareness of these professions among students early on, alongside more widely understood pathways such as medicine, engineering, or finance. When young people can clearly see these roles, they are better positioned to make informed and confident career choices.
If workforce readiness is planned alongside infrastructure growth rather than as an afterthought—we will see far more sustainable outcomes.