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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Doctors for rural India -Soham D Bhaduri

Doctors for rural India -Soham D Bhaduri

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published Published on Feb 19, 2018   modified Modified on Feb 19, 2018
-The Hindu

Inducting Licentiate Medical Practitioners may be the solution to the chronic shortage of doctors in rural areas

Nearly 600 million people in India, mostly in the rural areas, have little or no access to health care. A widespread disregard for norms, a perpetual failure to reach targets, and an air of utter helplessness are what mark the state of rural health care today. One can add to this another fact: the country is short of nearly five lakh doctors.

Among the range of measures that have been suggested in the past decade is a rather promising proposal which has been sidelined. If properly implemented, it may provide rural India with a lasting pool of primary care physicians.

The contours

A few years ago, the Union Health Ministry drew flak when it put forth a proposal to train a new cadre of health professionals. Under this plan, these professionals, after undergoing a short term, 3-3.5 year course in modern medicine, were to serve the health needs of the rural population, with a focus on primary care.

Such short-term courses aren’t new in the Indian health-care scenario. In the 1940s, primary care physicians — who were trained under short-term courses, and broadly termed Licentiate Medical Practitioners (LMPs) — would deliver quality services in the rural sector until the Bhore Committee (1946) recommended abolishing them in the idea that India would produce enough MBBS doctors.

The committee made certain laudable recommendations in connection with the public health system. Back then, however, nobody could have anticipated the country’s miserable failure in achieving most of the targets prescribed by the committee, even years after Independence. While a profit-driven, private health-care sector continued to denude the public health system of its qualified physicians, its medical education system kept losing touch with the actual health needs of the country.

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’s needs. 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. Further, a provision for learning in the vernacular languages can be made.

Not quacks

Short-term courses in modern medicine have been consistently equated with producing “cheaply made, poor quality doctors”. However, one begs to differ with this. LMPs cannot be called quacks if they be adequately trained in their field (primary care) and have a well-defined role in health care. The present MBBS curriculum includes a good amount of superfluous detail, including subjects such as forensic medicine, that is of little relevance to primary care physicians. Here, we should also note that even though nurse practitioners and pharmacist medical practitioners may be capable of serving the same functions as LMPs, they cannot be expected to make up a lasting pool of dedicated grass-rootlevel physicians.

Another concern is that the 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.

Please click here to read more.

The Hindu, 19 February, 2018, http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/doctors-for-rural-india/article22791210.ece?homepage=true


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