The Hindu : New Delhi News : Urban doctors for rural healthcare project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 02, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

Urban doctors for rural healthcare project

By Bindu Shajan Perappadan

NEW DELHI, AUG. 1. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is ready with a blue print for work allocation of doctors practising in the urban sector to render medical health to those living in the rural areas. The project - "Aao Gaon Chalen'' -- which will be launched early next week is a village health development project, the objective of which is to motivate doctors in the country to contribute their best to rural health development

The IMA with 1,600 branches all over the country and 200 well-established offices has 1.6 lakh doctors on its rolls. Under the project, IMA offices across the country are to adopt one village each taking care of not just the outpatient department but also diagnostic and basic treatment of those in the villages and those neglected under the Primary Health Care Centre Schemes. The progress of the project would be monitored through a response sheet to be sent to the headquarters of IMA office here in Delhi.

"While medical health care has grown by leaps and bounds in urban areas, the rural health care sector has not been sustained. There has been a crumbling of the primary health care infrastructure across the country. The state of these rural centres can be understood from the fact that the budget allocation for public health scheme has not gone up in many years. Also, it is a misconception that the doctors are not ready to go to the rural areas. Under the project what we will be offering in rural areas will be medical community services, integrated rural medical programmes. We do not require funds form the government or any other agencies. The IMA in various areas will look into the running and maintenance of each project,'' explained the president of IMA, Vinay Aggarwal.

With the launch of the project, doctors claim that the health services would be made available in a co-ordinated and well-organised fashion and would be consistent.

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