New Delhi: Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss has announced that a policy, by which medical students have to serve in the countryside, will be made compulsory.
The tentative scheme is doctors will get only a temporary registration from the Medical Council of India till they complete the one year rural posting.
As part of the National Rural Health Mission, the internship could be for a year at the end of the course or for four months each in the last three years of the course.
Compulsory rural posting is not a new idea. Medical students have signed bonds and still not done the mandatory stint.
Says Dr Imrana Quadeer, Department of Community medicine, JNU, " The infrastructure needs to be strengthen. Merely posting doctors in rural areas won't do."
In the past students have refused to accept rural postings.
This scheme has to guarantee better facilities and at least a small pay packet for the students.
The Health ministry?s announcement has evoked sharp reactions from the doctor fraternity in Madhya Pradesh.
Prior to Ramadoss, several health ministers had also tried to enforce this policy. But in some states like West Bengal, the policy was gradually given up because students refused to serve in rural areas.
Union health minister Ramdoss in Guwahati says the decision that was taken after discussions with state health ministries will be implemented despite protests.
He also stated that the decision applies to private medical students as well.
Dr C S Indoria who works at a primary health centre in Fanda, Bhopal says, "Before sending doctors to rural areas the government should fulfil the promises that it makes. All doctors have to live and work in pitiable conditions."
President Junior Doctors Association, Madhya Pradesh, Dr Hemant Verma says, "We don't have any problem in going to rural areas but first infrastructure has to be provided. Proper housing facilities have to be arranged and doctors working in rural areas have to be given incentives."
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Resident doctors at India?s premier Post Graduate Institute for Medical Education and Research at Chandigarh agree that the government should chip in with the best of resources and facilities for these doctors.
Dr Sameer, senior resident, department of dermatology that no doctor will be willing to practice in a place where the government does not even provide chairs and drinking water.
Other doctors however say that working in a rural area is a good idea.
Says Dr Mili, Junior resident, department of obstetrics and gynecology, PGI Chandigarh, "I have worked in rural areas before and it has changed my whole point of view. We as doctors need to work in real situations with real people."
Dr Manish Thakur, junior resident, department of transfusion medicine, PGI Chandigarh agrees.
"This profession is more about giving than taking. We should reach out to the rural areas; will also a get a lot of practice there. As a doctor we must learn to manage with whatever resources we have."
Dr Chatar Singh, a resident at PGI feels that this is an opportunity to create more facilities in rural areas.
Dr Suresh Kumar, a resident at a hospital in Haryana feels that villagers
will no longer have to rush to cities to get the medical care.
However most doctors are in doubt as to whether such a decision could ever be implemented.
This is because most of the primary health centres that are supposed to cater to the health needs of rural India do not have any thing in the name of infrastructure.
Proper housing facilities are not provided and the vacancies of the support staff have not been filled for years.
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