Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI) along with medical students’ representatives from across the country have announced a nationwide movement ‘Save the Doctor’ to equalise under graduation (UG) and post graduation (PG) medical seats. This mass movement is aimed to influence the policy makers and medical institutions in the country. Medical students want rural posting to be part of internship and postgraduate training. Over two to three lakh medical students are expected to support this movement across India.
Dr Devi Shetty, Treasurer, AHPI, said, “It is a sad plight that nearly two lakh young doctors in our country at the peak of their youth spend few years in coaching classes mugging Multiple Choice Questions rather than treating patients and learning the art of healing. These young doctors under the right circumstances can significantly improve the quality of health care offered to our citizens.” He also added, “Every Indian household once dreamt of making their child a doctor, but today it is considered as a costly and a tedious process.”
There are 45,600 UG seats which is likely to reach 50,000 shortly due to the progressive steps taken by the MCI. Whereas, there are only 12,000 PG seats which most of the doctors prefer to choose. In the last PG entrance exam under NEET, over 1,10,000 doctors appeared for the test to claim one of the 12,000 seats. Adding to all, the one year compulsory rural posting has worsened the situation.
Dr Narendra Saini, Secretary General, IMA, said, “Indian Medical Association supports rural posting. But, in the present situation making it compulsory is not feasible because there is no structured posting in rural areas. Every PG student must do six months of rural posting as part of their course/ internship.” He also added, “Every medical officer during their tenure is entitled for atleast 4-5 promotions. For every promotion, one year rural posting can be made mandatory.”
Dr Navneet Motreja, Coordinator, Campaign – Save the Doctor, said, “If situation does not change we are not far from desperate measures like importing surgeons from other countries. Recently, due to public pressure Brazilian PM agreed to import 6,000 specialist doctors from Cuba.”
One can login to www.savethedoctor.in and post an appeal which will then be reportedly sent to the Union Health Minister.
EH News Bureau
