Sunday, April 1, 2018

Call for reservation of MBBS seats from backward districts

TIMES NEWS NETWORK   31.03.2018

Courts have repeatedly struck down district-based incentives for admission of medical students, but public health experts are urging policy makers to look at reservation in backward districts at the undergraduate level to ensure more doctors in rural areas.

In the past two years, 10 students from Tiruvarur joined a medical college through the state’s single window counselling. From six in 2016, the number dropped to four in 2017 after NEET. The same year, Sivaganga had 13 compared to 712 from Chennai.

Migration becomes another issue when the few medicos from smaller towns move to the city. “Students from the city do not move to rural areas as they are used to the comforts of the city. The government should reserve a certain percentage of seats for those who have studied in a district. Such students should sign a bond to serve in the district for at least five years,” said former director of public health Dr S Elango.

Apart from a bond, it is important to tempt doctors to stay, says Mumbai-based T Sundararaman of school of health systems studies at Tata Institute of Social Studies. “It’s not a problem just in TN or India. It exists across the globe and solutions are the same. In Thailand, doctors working in rural areas are paid twice more than those working in Bangkok,” he said. In addition, uniform equipment and operating procedures will remove the feeling of isolation, he said.

Although TN’s performance in most health indicators is good, it has not been able to achieve uniform standards. “It’s part of our long-term plan. While we are trying to build a medical college in every district (TN has 22), we want to increase seats to 250 in existing colleges. This would mean colleges in rural areas will have the same infrastructure like those in Chennai,” said A Edwin Joe, director of medical education.

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