{"id":31199,"date":"2018-10-27T12:30:56","date_gmt":"2018-10-27T07:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=31199"},"modified":"2018-10-27T12:30:56","modified_gmt":"2018-10-27T07:00:56","slug":"doctors-for-rural-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/doctors-for-rural-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Doctors for rural India"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/todays-paper\/tp-opinion\/doctors-for-rural-india\/article22792717.ece\"><b>Doctors for rural India<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Context:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Nearly 600 million people in India, mostly in the rural areas, have little or no access to health care.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>State of rural health care today:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A widespread disregard for norms<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Perpetual failure to reach targets and an air of utter helplessness are what mark the state of rural health care today.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The country is short of nearly five lakh doctors.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>The contours<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A few years ago, the Union Health Ministry put forth a proposal to train a new cadre of health professionals.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Under this plan, these professionals, after undergoing a short term, course in modern medicine, were to serve the health needs of the rural population, with a focus on primary care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the 1940s, primary care physicians \u2014 who were trained under short-term courses, and termed Licentiate Medical Practitioners (LMPs) \u2014 would deliver quality services in the rural sector.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">However, the Bhore Committee (1946) recommended abolishing them in the idea that India would produce enough MBBS doctors.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Bhore Committee:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The committee made recommendations in connection with the public health system.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Way ahead:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Starting a short-term course in modern medicine can provide an opportunity to design a medical curriculum that is much more relevant to the nation\u2019s needs.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Its entry requirements could be based less on sheer merit and more on an aptitude for medical service and preference should be given to applicants from within the community.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A provision for learning in the vernacular languages can be made.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LMPs should be adequately trained in their file and have a well-defined role in health care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rural population would be made to feel like second class citizens by appointing a lower tier doctor to treat them. This can be put to rest by not letting LMPs replace MBBS doctors but instead work in a subordinate capacity.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LMPs be employed in sub-centres where they perform both clinical and administrative functions at the sub-centre level. This would allow easier access to primary and emergency care.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Keep the post of medical officer for MBBS doctors, thereby deterring any competition between the two cadres of physicians.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Inpatient facilities at PHCs should be scaled up.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Training to new recruited medical officers in basic clinical specialties.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">PHCs should deal with cases referred to them by sub-centre LMPs and also supervise their work.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Advantages:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With LMPs working at the grass-root level, a single PHC would be able to handle a bigger population, allowing for more resources to be concentrated on individual PHCs for manpower and infrastructure development and also for increasing the remuneration of medical officers.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Quality emergency and inpatient attention can be made available at the PHC-level.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Today, less than a handful of PHCs provide inpatient care of significance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Concerns about the clinical and administrative incompetence of fresh MBBS graduates appointed as bonded medical officers can be put to rest.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">LMPs could be allowed to take up a postgraduate course in primary care as an option to study further.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Reviving LMPs can help address the dearth of trained primary care physicians in rural India.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Doctors for rural India Context: Nearly 600 million people in India, mostly in the rural areas, have little or no access to health care. State of rural health care today: A widespread disregard for norms Perpetual failure to reach targets and an air of utter helplessness are what mark the state of rural health care&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/doctors-for-rural-india\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Doctors for rural India<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31199","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-test-1","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704909111},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31199","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\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31199"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31199\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31199"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31199"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31199"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}