Doctors who have an MBBS degree from a government college but didn’t get a PG seat may settle in such ‘poor’ areas. Entrepreneurs among them may set up speciality hospitals, but they would soon become expensive for the EWS, despite being covered by the government for serious ailments through various schemes. In such a situation, the EWS depends on government clinics, primary health centres and district hospitals that are always short staffed and don’t have qualified MBBS and specialist doctors. The patient’s last hope lies with better equipped government/civic hospitals such as Mumbai’s which are the most sought after healthcare destination for the EWS and middle class. Not all may be aware that the medical colleges that are attached with these government/civic hospitals produce the country’s finest doctors. Government facilities in Pune, Nagpur and other places are no different. These government colleges are allotted to students who get higher grades in the entrance; the general as well as the reserved categories.

During the Covid-19 pandemic or any other emergency, the government facilities, big or small, urban or rural, are burdened the most despite the lack of human resources and infrastructure. The lack of a public healthcare budget is another subject. We are exploring the ways of bringing more well-educated allopathy doctors to affordable public healthcare, especially where they are not available. The process begins with making medical education cheaper, and providing better salaries and perks to the doctors who are willing to work with the public healthcare set-up. The government may make the law stringent to hold them back in service, but should not make them feel they are second-class professionals when compared to their counterparts working in the corporate and private sector.

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Recently, the National Medical Commission came out with guidelines that the fees for 50 per cent seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities (government quota seats) should be charged equivalent to the government medical colleges of a parent state. Capitation fee is barred. The guidelines will be effective from the next academic session, but upset over the diktat, the people in private medical education say that it won’t be that easy for the government to make it mandatory, indicating a possibility of litigation against ‘not-for-profit’ guidelines. Delaying implementation as long as possible will save these institutes a huge financial loss.

The IMA has shown its humane side in urging the PM to absorb the war-hit students, who are almost one-fourth of the country’s total MBBS intake. The old provision of allowing foreign medical students in distress to intern in Indian medical colleges has been notified again. As a rule, these foreign graduates, like others, will have to crack a qualifying examination for procuring licence to practise in India. Their juniors have a long way to go. The Russia-Ukraine war has exposed us to a reality that most of us were unaware of.

Dharmendra Jore is political editor, mid-day. He tweets @dharmendrajore
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