The Hindu : Kerala News : Rural internship proposed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Nov 24, 2007
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Kerala

Kerala

Rural internship proposed

C. Maya

Duration of MBBS course will go up
Mixed reaction from stakeholders

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Union Health Ministry is contemplating the introduction of Compulsory Rotational Internship of two years for MBBS students, out of which one year will have to be served in a rural station of the student’s choice in any State.

At present, MBBS students in medical colleges in the country undergo four-and-a-half years training plus one year of internship in a teaching institution. The current proposal is to add another year of compulsory rural internship to the existing five-and-a-half-year course.

If the proposal comes through, the total duration of the MBBS course would become six-and-a-half years in all medical colleges in the country, only after which the students would get permanent registration from the Medical Council of India, P. H. Ananthanarayanan, Deputy Director General (Medical), Directorate General of Health Services, told The Hindu.

Dr. Ananthanarayanan, who is heading a six-member high-level team of officials from the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), was at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College on Friday to elicit responses on this proposal from the stakeholders, including students, teachers and parents.

When the Centre had launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) in 2005, it had also set up a taskforce to look into the current medical education scenario and to re-orient it to suit the implementation of NRHM. One of the recommendations of the taskforce had been the introduction of an additional year of compulsory rural internship as part of the MBBS course.

“We have had mixed reactions from stakeholders so far. Some have expressed their concerns about the long course duration. Some States have implemented one-year compulsory rural service for MBBS doctors and this would mean that it would be much longer before the students can settle down,” Dr. Ananthanarayanan said.

Of the proposed one-year rural internship, a student would spend four months each in a primary health centre, community health centre and a district hospital.

The other concerns that were raised before the officials were the lack of infrastructural facilities in rural hospitals which would affect the training of students.

Dr. Aanthanarayanan said the Government had already initiated the upgrading of all PHCs/CHCs under the Indian Public Health Standards and that infrastructural deficiencies would not pose a problem.

The senior officials of MoHFW who were in the team included P. Kar, T.J.S. Chawla, C. Adithan, A.K. Gupta and S.K. Pradhan.

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