Pakistan needs about 179,000 more doctors to meet the demand for healthcare, as public hospitals across the country struggle with overcrowding and a shortage of medical facilities. The Pakistan doctor shortage is worst in small towns and villages, where patients often find no doctor at all.
Abdul Ghafoor Shoro, secretary general of the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA), gave the figure in Lahore. He said the shortfall is now one of the main reasons public hospitals cannot cope with the number of patients they receive.
The Pakistan doctor shortage in numbers
Official figures put the number of registered medical practitioners in Pakistan at 340,780, including 164,554 men and 176,223 women. Against the size of the population, that total falls well short of what the health system needs.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends one doctor for every 1,000 people. Teaching hospitals in Pakistan have, on average, one doctor for every 1,300 people, which already breaks the WHO standard.
The situation is far worse outside the big cities. At tehsil headquarters and district headquarters hospitals, as well as basic health units, only 0.23 doctors are available for every 1,000 patients. The shortage has added to the pressure on government hospitals, where patients face overcrowding and limited access to care.
The issue is made worse by the lack of a comprehensive national policy to ensure that medical facilities are shared fairly among government hospitals across provinces and cities. Without such a policy, doctors stay concentrated in large urban hospitals while smaller facilities go without.
Hospitals under strain
Public hospitals carry most of the burden because private care is out of reach for millions of families. When teaching hospitals are short of doctors, patients wait longer for treatment that should be routine.
The strain shows up in other parts of the health system too. Karachi’s public hospitals have dealt with a suspected rabies case at Jinnah Hospital and an infant mpox case in Landhi, while an inquiry at Khyber Teaching Hospital found a gap of 135,000 tests and a monthly loss of Rs7 million. Sindh has responded by laying the foundation of a 600-bed hospital in Larkana, but new buildings do not fix a shortage of doctors to staff them.
The quackery problem
The shortage has a second face. Shoro said more than 600,000 unqualified practitioners, often called fake doctors, are operating across Pakistan. The figure was confirmed by the Sindh Healthcare Commission, based on estimates from the Pakistan Medical and Dental Council, and was reported by Dawn and AFP in January 2026.
Shoro has called the practice a public health epidemic. Such practitioners typically work under real doctors, pick up a few skills there, and then open their own clinics. Unqualified doctors do not know the side effects and exact doses of medicines, and a disease that is not diagnosed properly can become dangerous.
The practice also hits families financially, as patients whose conditions worsen after improper treatment arrive at tertiary hospitals with bigger bills.
Why the register does not match reality
On paper, the registered total of 340,780 doctors looks close to the WHO benchmark for a population of nearly 250 million. The shortage sits in who is actually working, and where.
About 4,000 doctors left Pakistan for better opportunities in 2025, according to Gallup Pakistan analysis of Bureau of Emigration records, a historic peak in medical migration. Pakistan produces about 22,000 new doctors a year, but the outflow means the gain is smaller than it looks.
A 2023 Gallup survey also found that 35 per cent of women doctors in Pakistan do not work. Women now form the majority of registered doctors, so that gap alone removes a large share of the workforce from practice.
Healthcare is also concentrated in urban areas, which means seriously ill patients must travel to a few cities for care. Until more doctors stay in practice, and until they are spread more evenly across districts, the registered total will keep flattering a system that patients experience as short-staffed.
Frequently asked questions
How many more doctors does Pakistan need?
About 179,000, according to the Pakistan Medical Association.
What does the WHO recommend?
One doctor for every 1,000 people. Teaching hospitals in Pakistan average one doctor per 1,300 people, and tehsil and district hospitals and basic health units have only 0.23 doctors per 1,000 patients.
How many fake doctors operate in Pakistan?
More than 600,000, according to PMA secretary general Abdul Ghafoor Shoro. The figure was confirmed by the Sindh Healthcare Commission, based on Pakistan Medical and Dental Council estimates.
Why do doctors leave Pakistan?
About 4,000 doctors emigrated in 2025, a record, according to Gallup Pakistan analysis of Bureau of Emigration records. Doctors cite the lack of modern equipment, training opportunities and collaborative workplaces.
