New Delhi: In a radical shift in postgraduate medical education, the central government has made it mandatory for all students pursuing MD or MS to undergo compulsory posting at a district hospital for three months, starting from the 2020-21 academic session.
The students will be posted at a district hospital in their third, fourth or fifth semester. PG medical education is a three-year programme.
“All postgraduate students pursuing MD/MS in broad specialities in all Medical Colleges/Institutions under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 shall undergo a compulsory residential rotation of three months in District Hospitals / District Health System as a part of the course curriculum,” read the gazette notification issued last week.
It added, “Such rotation shall take place in the 3rd or 4th or 5th semester of the Postgraduate programme. This rotation shall be termed as ‘District Residency Programme’ (DRP) and the postgraduate medical student undergoing training shall be termed as a ‘District Resident’.”
According to officials, this will help achieve three things — there will be more specialists at district hospitals, postgraduate degree holders will have a better understanding of the district health system, and this will over a period of time open up 10,000-12,000 more PG seats in medical colleges.
The gazette notification said, “The main objectives of the DRP will be (i) to expose postgraduate students to District Health System and involve them in healthcare services being provided at district hospitals for learning while serving; (ii) to acquaint them with the planning, implementation, monitoring and assessment of outcomes of the national health programmes at district levels; and (iii) to orient them to promotive, preventive, curative and rehabilitative services being provided by various categories of healthcare professionals under the umbrella of National Health Mission.”
In doing so, it added, the PG medical students would also be contributing towards “strengthening of services of the District Health System as specialty resident doctors working as members of the district teams”.
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‘Win-win programme’
Dr V.K. Paul, chairman of the Medical Council of India Board of Governors, described the programme as a “win-win” initiative that will perform three functions.
“Firstly, it will ensure that PG students get a ground-level understanding of the district health system and the issues that people face at a district hospital, thus making them specialists with better overall understanding of the system,” he told ThePrint.
Secondly, he said, “These are people who have completed a year of their PG course so obviously they are specialists. Every district hospital will get 7-8 such people from different disciplines. Thirdly, with a quarter of their PG students out for residency, this will open up space for medical colleges to apply for an increase in PG seats. Over a period of time, we are looking at 10,000-12,000 more PG seats because of this programme.”
To be part of this programme, a district hospital will have to be a functional public sector/government-funded hospital of not less than 100 beds with facilities/staff for the designated specialities at that level/facility.
The District Health System shall include all public sector/government-funded hospitals and facilities (including community health centres, primary health centres, sub health centres and urban health centres etc.), as well as community outreach systems of a district.
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this is another patchwork solution put up by a clue less government.
Who is going to supervise these residents?
residents are trainees who are supposed to be under supervision of experts round the clock to guide them.
It is beyond doubt that district hospitals need strengthening but putting the lives of poor people by exposing them to unsupervised trainees is abrogation of the patient’s right!
and there is the question of infrastructure.
suppose we place surgical trainees in district hospitals with anaesthesia residents where are the ICUs and ventilators to perform those complex operations?
3 month accomodations who will arrange? what about their safety?
who will be liable for any negligence.
this is nothing but the government trying to use cheap labor!
A better way would be to make district hospital work for 6 months compulsory while hiring Assistant Professors and Senior residents in Government medical college , but that would cost more money.
stop fooling people jumla ji