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Treat villagers or pay fat medicine school fees
By Sumit Kumar, Section News
Soon, Students studying medicine in government-run colleges will have to sign a bond promising to work in a government health centre for a year.
And if they opt out, they will have to pay the bond money . "They can pay the bond, which will be the amount private medical colleges charge as fees for an MBBS course," Health minister Anbumani Ramadoss told Hindustan Times. Tuition fees in private colleges range between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 25 lakh. Those who work with health centres will be exempt from pay- ing the annual MBBS tuition fees of Rs 250 a year charged by government colleges. This proposal will replace the health ministry's earlier hugely unpopular decision to introduce compul sory rural stint for all doctors before they could apply for a post-graduate course. "I don't know why people refer to it as rural posting; most centres are in small and medi um-sized towns. They are com pared to Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai, but people in big cities should get a taste of In dia's social reality," said Rama doss. The proposal may be im plemented for new entrants from next year. There are 271 medical colleges in the country of which 138 are run by the government; the re maining 133 are private col leges. Together, these colleges offer 31,172 MBBS seats and 11,005 post-graduate courses. "I don't think the bond will deter students from taking up MBBS. The IITs charge students Rs 3.5 lakh a year, but the tuition fee in government medical colleges is just Rs 250 a year," said Ramadoss. The idea has been borrowed from the armed forces. Students applying for admission to MBBS at the Armed Forces Medical College have to sign a bond where they agree to serve as commissioned officers for seven years. Students opting out have to pay bond money of Rs 15 lakh. Doctors welcome rural service, but with riders Click on "Full Story" for more...
Doctors welcome rural service, but with riders
UNDER THE health ministry's new proposal, a young doctor has to serve a one-year stint at a government centre, with four months in a district hospi tal, four in a primary health centre and four in a community health centre. The medical fraternity found the ministry's proposal for the opt-out option largely acceptable, but with some riders. Dr Naresh Trehan offers a "half-way proposal" he says would better meet the needs of rural people. "I suggest the doctor be based at a district hospital. He should go out with mobile health systems to hold camps, reach people throughout the district, using ambulances to send critical- ly-ill patients back to the hospital," sug- gests Trehan. This, he says, won't just be practical but result in accountability too. The government, say some doctors, should have a system to ensure doctors get guidance and help from senior staff. "If a young doctor is to function in an ill-equipped primary health centre, the government needs to lay down clear rules about what he should and shouldn't do," says Dr S.K.S. Marya, head of Max Institute of Orthopaedics and Joint Replacement Surgery, Delhi. Now that the ministry plans to offer students the option of bail ing out of the compulsory being done to some extent under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM)." For the NRHM, doctors are hired on contract at a salary of Rs 24,000 a month. "Government doctors in many states are paid far less -- a doctor in Kerala gets a basic of Rs 6,000 -- which is ridiculous, given the lives they save," said Ramadoss. Talk rural stint, the money can be used to hire professionals on contract basis to meet the huge shortfall in rural areas. Agrees Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss: "We need better facilities and salaries for doctors in the public sector to ensure they stay and it's to us Is the proposal for 1-year rural service for medicos right? Source: HT, Aug-23, 2008
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