Karnataka Rural Service : Serve in villages, Governor tells medicos

Karnataka Rural Service : Serve in villages, Governor tells medicos
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From http://www.deccanherald.com/content/231923/serve-villages-guv-tells-medicos.html

Governor H R Bhardwaj called upon the medical graduates to serve poor in the rural areas and urged them to emulate exceptional work done by a few eminent doctors in the country to ensure that all have access to healthcare facilities.He was delivering the graduation address at the graduation ceremony of St John’s Medical College, here on Saturday. Of the 157 students who graduated from the college, 53 are MBBS graduates, 45 paramedical graduates, 59 postgraduates and super-speciality graduates.

Trinity Deepak Francis who received his MBBS certificate, was awarded the Research Society Merit Certificate for interns.

Speaking to Deccan Herald, Francis said he was keen on pursuing postgraduation in Paediatric Surgery. Unlike many who want to go abroad for higher education, Francis says “I want to serve people here, in my country.” Rev Bernanrd Moras, Archbishop of Bangalore presided over the ceremony.

From http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/tp-karnataka/doctors-are-averse-to-rural-service/article1586379.ece

Winners: Roopashree (left, five gold medals) from Mangalore, Zulfin Shaikh (five gold medals) from Dharwad and Shruthi D.P. (four gold medals) from Bangalore posing for photographers during the 13th convocation of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences at the NIMHANS Convention Centre in Bangalore on Wednesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday expressed concern that not many doctors were enthusiastic to take up rural service despite the Union Government offering several incentives by amending Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations.

Delivering the 13 {+t} {+h} annual convocation address at the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) here, the Minister said that the MCI regulations had been amended to provide 50 per cent reservation of seats in post-graduate diploma medical courses for medical officers working in rural areas.

“We have also announced that additional marks for each year of rural service would be provided to candidates appearing for post-graduate medical entrance tests. Despite this, it is unfortunate that not many are interested in rural service,” he said. Pointing out that there is an acute shortage of human resources, including specialists, doctors, nurses and paramedics, in the health sector, he said: “This is one of the biggest impediments to efforts to strengthen the public health delivery system and scaling up access to healthcare.”

Of the 314 medical colleges in the country, 149 are run by the Government. The admission capacity of these colleges is 37,000 students per year.

“The MCI regulations have been amended to raise the maximum intake at MBBS level from 150 to 250. This will add more MBBS seats to the current tally,” the Minister said. The number of post-graduate seats in various medical colleges is expected to go up by 5,125 in the academic year 2011-2012.

Rationalisation of the teacher-student ratio alone from 1:1 to 1:2 would result in the creation of an additional 2,800 post-graduate seats in various medical colleges. This had been coupled with other initiatives taken by the Government with a view to increasing the number of post-graduate medical seats, he said.

Governor H.R. Bhardwaj, who is the Chancellor of RGUHS, presided over the convocation and awarded degrees. Vice-Chancellor of RGUHS S. Ramananda Shetty said the RGUHS had ensured that all its affiliated colleges set up a HIV cell on their premises. This would help in prevention, treatment and education of HIV patients under the guidance of the university, he said.