Doctors still not ready to serve in rural areas: Madras high court
TNN | Mar 31, 2019, 05.45 AM ISTCHENNAI:
The Madras high court has observed that doctors are hesitant to serve in villages even after 70 years of independence, and efforts by the government to encourage doctors to serve in the rural areas have gone in vain.
“Though India has developed and modified the healthcare in rural areas by establishing primary health centres (PHC), many of them are without doctors, manned by nurses and paramedical staff or with just one doctor and paramedical staff. From these PHCs, patients are being referred to district headquarters hospitals, which are supposed to have all facilities required for managing at least 90% of the cases,” Justice Puspha Sathyanarayana said.
Adding that getting admission in a government medical college is a Himalayan challenge, the court said, “Like any other profession, a busy practice and an affluent life would be the dream of every medical student. Therefore, rural practice is also becoming remote, especially in India, where we have our native medicines like siddha, ayurveda and naturopathy.”
Noting that doctors in multi-speciality hospitals and government hospitals in the city are provided with multifarious equipment and are depending on laboratory reports, the court said, while there is no harm in using such facilities, doctors in these classified areas feel helpless, as they get only a little experience in clinical skills. The internship training given to those doctors expose them to the real world. But now that has become a casualty service in the case of postgraduate medical students, the court said.
As the doctor to people ratio is very low, the government can consider posting two doctors to each PHC, so that the willingness to work will be there, Justice Puspha added.
The court made the observations while disposing of a batch of pleas moved by service candidates seeking direction to the state to declare their areas also as remote and difficult.
TNN | Mar 31, 2019, 05.45 AM ISTCHENNAI:
The Madras high court has observed that doctors are hesitant to serve in villages even after 70 years of independence, and efforts by the government to encourage doctors to serve in the rural areas have gone in vain.
“Though India has developed and modified the healthcare in rural areas by establishing primary health centres (PHC), many of them are without doctors, manned by nurses and paramedical staff or with just one doctor and paramedical staff. From these PHCs, patients are being referred to district headquarters hospitals, which are supposed to have all facilities required for managing at least 90% of the cases,” Justice Puspha Sathyanarayana said.
Adding that getting admission in a government medical college is a Himalayan challenge, the court said, “Like any other profession, a busy practice and an affluent life would be the dream of every medical student. Therefore, rural practice is also becoming remote, especially in India, where we have our native medicines like siddha, ayurveda and naturopathy.”
Noting that doctors in multi-speciality hospitals and government hospitals in the city are provided with multifarious equipment and are depending on laboratory reports, the court said, while there is no harm in using such facilities, doctors in these classified areas feel helpless, as they get only a little experience in clinical skills. The internship training given to those doctors expose them to the real world. But now that has become a casualty service in the case of postgraduate medical students, the court said.
As the doctor to people ratio is very low, the government can consider posting two doctors to each PHC, so that the willingness to work will be there, Justice Puspha added.
The court made the observations while disposing of a batch of pleas moved by service candidates seeking direction to the state to declare their areas also as remote and difficult.
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