{"id":249326,"date":"2023-06-23T20:46:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-23T15:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=249326"},"modified":"2023-08-31T16:32:43","modified_gmt":"2023-08-31T11:02:43","slug":"can-a-shorter-medical-course-solve-rural-doctor-shortages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/can-a-shorter-medical-course-solve-rural-doctor-shortages\/","title":{"rendered":"Can a shorter medical course solve rural doctor shortages?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Source-<\/strong> The post is based on the article \u201cCan a shorter medical course solve rural doctor shortages?\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 23rd June 2023.<\/p>\n

Syllabus:<\/strong> GS2- Issues related to development and management of health<\/p>\n

Relevance-<\/strong> Issues related to rural health<\/p>\n

News-\u00a0 <\/strong>Last month, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the Health Department to consider starting a three-year diploma course for medical practitioners, who would then serve in primary health centres.<\/p>\n

Why is the idea proposed by the West Bengal CM not a right solution?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The diploma course may not provide trained doctors to adequately deal <\/strong>with the conditions in rural areas.<\/p>\n

Rural areas may not have adequate facilities, infrastructure, or transport<\/strong>. In case of emergency or a critical care situation, trainees will face difficulties in dealing with the situation<\/p>\n

There are concerns regarding the future status of these trainees. <\/strong><\/p>\n

India has paramedical staff like physician assistants<\/strong>. They can be trained better<\/strong> to deal with emergencies. That would be a better idea than this three-year diploma.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Why the idea proposed by the West Bengal CM sound good?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There exists a general aversion among professional doctors <\/strong>to practise in rural areas. In West Bengal, the number of doctors per 10,000 population<\/strong> is below the national average.<\/p>\n

So, it makes sense to drive a cadre of doctors who are capable of providing first-level care to the rural countryside. <\/strong><\/p>\n

PHCs are the most essential rung of the healthcare infrastructure<\/strong> and should possess doctors who are fully trained<\/strong>. But, we can consider mid-level healthcare providers<\/strong> who function in sub centres, a rung below PHCs.<\/p>\n

Is this a discriminatory move to provide less qualified practitioners for rural populations?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Arguments in favour<\/strong>– Health awareness<\/strong> among the rural population is not very good. Many do not have the resources to get the medicines<\/strong> they need. In such situations, if less qualified doctors are appointed in rural areas, it is not fair.<\/p>\n

Arguments against<\/strong>– There is a need to differentiate between fiscal realities and fiscal ideals. <\/strong>The State has a prime responsibility in ensuring the highest attainable quality of care. <\/strong>But the realities on the ground makes it difficult to ensure highest care.<\/strong><\/p>\n

if there is no perfect solution<\/strong> on the horizon, and no action is taken, then it leads to even bigger discrimination.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some kind of an interim arrangement<\/strong> is needed when there are not enough fully qualified doctors.<\/p>\n

How can rural postings of doctors be encouraged?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

There is a need for hard incentives<\/strong>. More doctors need to be recruited into rural areas rather than retaining them, because recruiting practitioners and retaining<\/strong> them are two different things.<\/p>\n

To retain them in rural areas is not going to be possible for at least 30-40 years because ultimately, rural doctor shortage is a development problem.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Medical graduates do not want rural service as they are scared that they will get stuck there for ages. So, we must create a system where there is a continuous chain of doctors in rural areas. <\/strong><\/p>\n

Developed and developing countries are providing short-term courses<\/strong>. They provide care of a quality that is largely equivalent to doctors. So, mid-level practitioners at the sub centre level<\/strong> is a very important requirement today.<\/p>\n

There is a need for a system where full-fledged medical graduates<\/strong> realise their social obligations<\/strong>. There is a need to take steps to motivate medical graduates<\/strong> to go to rural areas.<\/p>\n

How wide disparity in the spread of our medical colleges can be tackled to address rural shortages?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Most medical colleges are concentrated in the southern States and some in forward States like Maharashtra and Gujarat. <\/strong><\/p>\n

About 85% of the seats are reserved<\/strong> for candidates from within those States.<\/p>\n

Purely private investments <\/strong>are not sufficient to deal with this inequality. Government investments<\/strong> are also needed. Over the last decade, government medical colleges have shown a remarkable increase in numbers.<\/p>\n

There are good examples from other countries. For example, Myanmar redistributed nursing colleges to decentralise nursing education <\/strong>from Yangon. It has shown great improvement not just in terms of redistributing medical colleges<\/strong>, but also in terms of rural retention.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source- The post is based on the article \u201cCan a shorter medical course solve rural doctor shortages?\u201d published in \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 23rd June 2023. Syllabus: GS2- Issues related to development and management of health Relevance- Issues related to rural health News-\u00a0 Last month, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee asked the Health Department to… Continue reading Can a shorter medical course solve rural doctor shortages?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10320,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,8131,10498],"class_list":["post-249326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-social-issues","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249326\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}