Allied and healthcare professionals
Also called: Allied health professionals, Paramedical professionals · Topic: Human Capital: Education, Health and Demographic Dividend · NCERT: Beyond NCERT
Meaning
Allied and healthcare professionals are trained health workers who are not doctors, nurses or pharmacists. They include lab technicians, radiographers (who take X-rays and scans), physiotherapists, optometrists and operation theatre technicians. They help with diagnosis, treatment and rehabilitation (helping a patient recover their ability to move and work). For a long time, India had no central regulator for them. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021 created a statutory body under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It sets standards, keeps a Central Register of these professionals and sets up a Professional Council for each recognised category. This matters for human capital, because a health system works only as well as the skilled people who run it.
Example
A doctor suspects a fracture in a patient's arm. A radiographer takes the X-ray, a lab technician runs the blood tests, and later a physiotherapist helps the patient get movement back in the arm. All three are allied and healthcare professionals. Under the NCAHP framework, each of them must be registered to practise.
Don't confuse with
- Doctors, nurses and pharmacists: these are not covered by NCAHP. They have their own regulators: the National Medical Commission (NMC), the National Nursing and Midwifery Commission and the Pharmacy Council of India.
- State Allied and Healthcare Councils: these are state-level bodies that keep State Registers. NCAHP is the national commission that sets the common standards.