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Has interest in Medical studies declined ?- 12-Jun-2009
We receive nearly 73% tax revenue from the Villages. So, it is imperative to give them medical service. However, all Medical Colleges are established only in urban areas. The Government which has decided to establish a Medical College in each District starts it only in Town areas.
This procedure must be changed and the Government must start Medical Colleges in villages. Only then the villagers can avail medical facilities at least to an extent. If this is done, the students need not be sent to villages in the name of service to the rural areas. The villagers will not benefit by sending the students to rural service.
According to the Governments Rural Medical Service plan, The students must serve at the District Headquarters Medical Center for four months, at Taluk Medical Centers for four months, and four months at the Villages. This system will not help the Villagers.
The CRRI training for medical students is a wonderfully planned system. A Medical Student has to become a total doctor in all fields and so must undergo all kinds of training. The CRRI training provides this experience. The House Surgeons undertake training for three months in each of the four fields, namely, Medicine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, and also Social Medicine.
The students get only per week two days training in the Surgery section. If posted in the Admission section, on that day they have to serve throughout for twenty-four hours. Only through CRRI training, the medical students become full-fledged doctors. Hence, to find fault with this practice is not good observe the senior doctors.
The students feel that if they complete four years of Engineering course, they can secure a job in the Campus Interview, and if they complete Information Technology, they can obtain jobs that can fetch a lakh of rupees as salary. The students who seek higher professional education calculate in this manner and select their course. Even the Medical Courses considered as a service oriented one, have become totally business oriented.
Starting from getting a seat in the Medical College till becoming a Medical practitioner after five years and six months, the Medical student has to cross many hurdles and so this course is slowly losing its value, is less preferred than other courses. If the Central Governments Ministry of Health implements the compulsory rural service, the Medical students have to extend their studies to one more year. When a student gets both Engineering and Medical Seats, he simply throws off Medicine and says a hurrah! to Engineering course. The experienced Medical practitioners list out various reasons for this state of affairs.
If the students do not get admission in the Government Medical Colleges and seek admission in Private colleges, they have to spend lakhs and lakhs of rupees. At the same time, studying Medicine is not an easy task.. For four and half years, the students have to master theory and compulsorily be a House Surgeon for one year. Then, they have to go for one year training in CRRI- Compulsory Rotatory Residential Internship.
The House Surgeons must compulsorily work for 365 days. If they avail one-day leave, it has to be compensated by working one more day as House Surgeon. One can imagine how hard it is for them to attend patients for all the twenty-four hours without a break for one year.
They must work in the hospital taking it as their own home, as Gurukulam pupils did. After completing MBBS, if they join as a Duty Doctorin a private hospital, the maximum income that one can fetch is Rs 12000/ only. Compared with other studies, they spend more years on their studies; but, the remuneration for that is quite low.
To become a Government doctor, they have to pass TNPSC examinations. The basic pay is only Rs.8000/. Now the tendency prevails that even an illiterate refuses treatment by MBBS doctors. Hence, they have to go for higher studies. For which, they have to appear for the entrance examination. Until last year the quota was 50% for the Government doctors, now this has been increased to 98%. How many non-Government service doctors can appear for the Entrance examination in 2% quota, get selected and can go for higher studies?
Hence, they are forced to choose private colleges for their higher studies. They can become specialists only after investing heavy donation and high fees which run into lakhs for higher studies. As per the Central Government plan, they can register in the Medical Council and receive certificate only after four and a half years of medical course, one year of House Surgeoncy and one year service at villages. The private doctors feel that they alone are sent to villages to treat patients. Their question is why they alone should be sent to Villages and why does the Government not send Government doctors to the villages.
The private doctors ask a pertinent question: is it proper to treat the villagers by an uncertified doctor? And is it not proper to give treatment to them by a trained doctor?
Their plea is that because they do service to rural people, the Government must come forward to give seniority in the higher studies of Government service. They also question that if there is paucity in the rural sectors, postings must be made as soon as they complete five and a half years of studies.
If one has to do service in the rural areas, after completing five and a half years of rigorous study, they lose seniority and how to compensate it? Such questions perplex the mind of the students now. In a country with a large population, it is obligatory to speed up the pace of medical service. The Health Department functions with the objective that this service should reach the last villager in the country.
If interest slackens in the studies of Medicine, - the basic need of the humanity - it is the duty of the Government to recognize the defects and rectify them. Unless the Government does this, its aim to render medical service to all will not be fulfilled.
