New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry will
finalise the syllabus for the proposed short-term medical
course for training doctors, especially for rural areas,
within this month.
The syllabus had been formulated by the erstwhile
Medical Council of India (MCI) and is awaiting the final
clearance from the ministry, a senior health ministry official
said.
Almost all state governments have given nod to the
syllabus and it will be finetuned within this month, he said.
The three-year bachelor of rural medicine and surgery
course has been proposed by the ministry to cope with shortage
of doctors in rural areas.
The course will be conducted at district level medical
schools in notified rural areas. The schools will be set up by
the central government and will take 20 to 25 students each.
These students will be given basic medical training
for three years and will get a license to work in rural areas
with a population of less than 5,000. There will not be any
specialisation for these doctors.
The course has been widely criticised by the IMA,
which has held that it will produce half-baked doctors.
There are nearly 25,000 primary health centres in the
country with four or five sub-centres under them. According to
the Planning Commission, India faces a shortage of about six
lakh doctors.
PTI
