ALTERNATIVE MODEL FOR MEDICAL EDUCATION TO BOOST RURAL HEALTH MANPOWER
16.OCT 2009

The President Smt Pratibha Devisingh Patil has exhorted the medical community to work for the ideal of medical care for all. Speaking at the General Assembly of World Medical Association here today, the President said “The question of equitable medical care to all people is a big human and ethical question...... In India, we are conscious of this and through policies and programmes, efforts are underway to reach populations including those in rural areas that face the highest degree of deprivation in terms of health facilities. All governments have responsibilities to take action, but global institutions also have a crucial role. The World Health Organization and other international organizations like yours are major stakeholders in this endeavour. I would call on all of you present here today, to contribute, to further the cause of medical care for all.”Speaking on the occasion the Union Health Minister Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad informed the participants about proposed alternative model for medical education primarily aimed for generation of the rural health manpower. In the proposed system “the admissions would be given to those, who qualify their examination from the schools located in rural areas with an average population of less than 10,000. Upon procuring the qualification they will be asked to serve in rural areas for prescribed period.” The minister said. Shri Azad said due to concentration of healthcare professional in urban and semi-urban areas there is a huge gap of availability of manpower at grass-root level. The minister outlined many short term and long term measures taken in consultation with Medical Council of India “not only towards mitigating the requirements of rural health manpower, but also towards ‘capacity building’ for health professionals in the country.” These measures involve not only “rationalizing the existing rules & regulations, at the same time we are also accommodating new ideas required for sustained development” the Minister said. He reiterated the measures such as relaxation of land requirement for setting up medical colleges, concessions for North- Eastern states, relaxation in teacher-student ratio norms for increasing specialists in the country and Public private partnership for setting up medical institutions. “Operationally, these wide ranging initiatives would definitely bridge the identified ‘crucial gaps’ in the domain of the requirement of the trained health manpower as against the prescribed ratio for health care delivery system. But under no circumstances the desired quality of teaching and training is compromised with in any manner” The Minister assured.

( editor comment: If the policy for recognition of colleges as proposed for North east States is approved, then Institutes like Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences's longterm recognition and increase in Seats problem will be solved.)