Capacity building for primary health care

Capacity building for primary health care

Context:

The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill,2017 attempts to ensure an adequate supply of quality medical practitioners by revamping the medical education system in India.

How does the NMC attempts to ensure adequate supply of quality medical practitioners?

• NMC bill has a provision for a bridge course to enable AYUSH practitioners to practice modern allopathic medicine in a limited way specifically in rural areas, where there are reduced number of medical practitioners.

What has been the debate over this provision?

• The provision of allowing AYUSH practitioners to practice modern allopathic medicine has been a problematic clause in the NMC Bill and has been largely debated.
• Critics have opined that this provision in the NMC Bill will put a large majority of rural India at health risk but also provides an opportunity to AYUSH practitioners to become a modern medicine practitioner using a ‘shortcut’.

What is the problem with the availability of quality medical practioners in India?

• According to the Rural Health Statistics 2014-15 of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, there is huge shortfall of doctors and specialists in the rural healthcare system.
• The physician-patient ratio is extremely low in primary health care centers.
• This is mainly due to paucity of MBBS-trained primary-care physicians and the unwillingness of existing MBBS-trained physicians to serve rural populations

How would the provision in the NMC Bill help solve this issue?

• In India, the AYUSH practitioners arguably provide some medical support to large section of the population deprived of healthcare facilities
• The provision is considered to be important to ensure adequate supply of medical practitioners in India.
• Training AYUSH practitioners to fill the gaps in healthcare delivery at primary level can improve the doctor-patient ratio and provide the poorest masses in remote areas some medical assistance.

Suggestions

• Capacity-building of licensed AYUSH practitioners through bridge training is important to address India’s primary health care needs
• However, training to AYUSH practitioners must be strictly be aimed to enable them dispense basic medical care and only in areas where qualified MBBS doctors are absent.
• It is important to train these practitioners in providing the right care for minor diseases and identifying and referring serious conditions to specialists.