Health Ministry to reserve seats for rural doctors

New Delhi: It is an initiative of the Ministry of Union Health (MUH) and the Medical Council of India (MCI), which should have come into action long before. In a move to bring doctors to rural areas, the MUH and MCI have decided to provide ‘additional’ motivation to the doctors working in rural areas to pursue specialized courses.

Only those doctors who have provided aid in the rural areas for more than three years will now be eligible for reservation in the PG diploma course.

“The reservation for the PG Diploma course will be as high as 50% for those maintaining their work area in villages for more than three years. As things stand today, there is no such reservation for PG Diploma or Degree courses in the universities,” said a senior official in theministry.

Subsequent benefits will be added to the eligibility of the doctors for pursuing such courses. For example, those with only one year of service in the rural sector stand a chance of getting 10% ‘additional’ marks to seek admission in a PG degree course, while those with another year added to their experience are deemed to get another extra 10%, making it 20%.

Dr. Ketan Desai, President, MCI said that, “If such subsequent benefits are added to their eligibility, it can maximum go up to 30% with a noticeable change in the merit list as more people will get a chance to study such specialized courses.”

It is a joint effort of the Ministry and MCI to find ways to meet the shortage of doctors.

According to Desai, this move will encourage the participation from the rural areas which barely get a chance to come forward. The medical profession has become a prerogative of the elite class.

He further added that, “Out of 32,000 MBBS seats in the country, 50% of them are for the reserved category while the remaining fall into the entire nation quota and those from therural areas barely get a chance to find a place in the institutions.”

The Health Ministry has given its nod to the proposal and it will be notified this week.

Keeping in view the standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), there should be one doctor for every 250 patients while India has an alarming figure of 1500 patients with one doctor.

An official added that, “Some of the Primary Health Centres in the rural areas had to be shut down due to lack of doctors.”

For those living in rural areas, the MCI decided to commence a new three-year course, MBBS (rural), for the aspiring doctors to get a first-hand experience.

“Doctors would be posted in a PHC for the first year, district hospital in the second and finally to into the tertiary care in the last year. With such a practical exposure, they will realize the problems faced by the rural area patients,” said Dr. Desai. source: http://indiaedunews.net/Medical/Health_Ministry_to_reserve_seats_for_rural_doctors_9469/