Stressing the need for a drastic change in medical
education, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Jagat Prakash Nadda said
that the government was for relaxing the norms of regulatory bodies to give an
impetus to medical education.
''The regulatory measures need a fresh thinking, a
rethinking. Discussions are on with Medical Council of India and the Indian
Medical Association and we are trying to convince them that we should be
pragmatic,'' he said here after laying the foundation stone for new women’s
hostel building and Dental College additional block at the Medical College.
Noting that medical education was facing a double challenge,
he said the first challenge was lack of resources, mainly man power and the
second one was that of maintaining quality of education. He stressed the need
for a balance between quantity and quality in medical education. ''As per the
WHO standards the doctor- patient ratio is 1: 1000 but we have 1: 1674 now.
When 14 lakh doctors are needed in the country, we have only 7 to 8 lakh
doctors. There is a need to address the issue at the earliest,'' he said.
Moreover, there is also a regional imbalance with regard to
Medical institutions. While 65 per cent of the medical institutes are in
Southern and Western India , the northern and
eastern parts are unaddressed, the minister said. ''Of the 6640 districts, 400
districts do not have medical institutions. We are now planning to upgrade 100
district hospitals to medical colleges so that all the regions get at least one
medical institute. With 100 more seats in each of the colleges, we can have
10,000 more doctors,'' he said.
Source: The New Indian Express
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