IMA, govt at loggerheads over proposed short-term medical course

New Delhi: The country’s apex body of doctors, Indian Medical Association, today slammed the government’s reported move to issue a “directive” to the Medical Council of India to endorse rural medicine short-term course. “IMA demands to know if the government is raising a new cadre of health workers, why is it seeking recognition from MCI? It will be inappropriate on the part of the government to give a directive to MCI on an issue which does not qualify to be classified as ‘policy issue’,” a statement by IMA national president Vinay Aggarawal and honorary secretary DR Rai said.[caption id=“attachment_122721” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Medical Council of India logo. Image courtesy MCI”]  [/caption] It said MCI, the regulator of the country’s medical education, is mandated to upkeep certain standards and “cannot be bullied”. The reaction came on the initiative of the Union Health Ministry to start a three-and-a-half year course of Bachelor of Rural Medicine so that medical needs of rural population can be catered to. The health ministry has reportedly asked MCI to endorse the course. “MCI should not be cowed down by the view points of the goernment of the day. MCI is a national institution and its submission to pressure on a crucial issue will make India a banana republic,” the statement said. The IMA questioned the move of the government to start a course in rural medicine saying that no disease is “confined exclusively to the rural areas or the urban areas”. Rai said that if government does not listen to IMA, it will start protests all over the country against the move to send lesser qualified doctors to rural areas. “Lowering the standard of medical education and producing low quality professionals for the rural areas is not the solution,” the statement said. The association said instead of rendering medical service to the rural population in a manner equivalent to that is available to the urban population, the government itself was bringing out an “inequality and irrational discrimination” which is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. “The notion that over 20-30 percent of primary health centres do not have a MBBS qualified doctor is not supported by statistics provided by the government of India. Only 5.3 percent of PHCs went without a qualified doctor. To say that none of the 1.46 lakh sub centres have a qualified MBBS doctor is a misrepresentation of fact to create a false case,” it said. The IMA said sub-optimal impact on disease burden in rural areas was not due to shortage in human resources alone. “Vacillation of policy makers and their inability to choose between primary health care and vertical programmes is a serious flaw,” it said. PTI