Use incentives, not force

Hello Friends .
This article is in regards to recent ruling that all mbbs doctors passing out should compulsorily do a one year stint after the mandatory one internship.
That makes MBBS in India to 6 and half year. Not only the doctors are fuming even the press is against this decision.

TIMES VIEW

If the health ministry has its way, all MBBS graduates in India will have to work for a year in rural areas to be eligible to apply for a postgraduate degree in the country. This proposal is not new. It did the rounds last year and was shelved following protests from students of medicine. Soon after, the health minister proposed to make the MBBS course a six-and-a-half years affair including a one-year compulsory rural posting. That too was cried down. So the good minister has revived his original plan now. It will however have to be passed by the Medical Council of India before it can be enforced.
There is no denying that there is a shortage of doctors staffing rural clinics and hospitals. The health minister believes that making it mandatory for MBBS graduates to serve a year in villages is a good way to counter this problem. Noble as it sounds, the idea is ill-conceived. Often, the reason medicine graduates opt for urban postings is the fact that there is poor medical infrastructure in rural India. A sizeable chunk of our primary health centres does not have labs, operation theatres and labour rooms. Support staff — such as nurses and lab technicians — are also in short supply.
The solution lies in making a rural posting an attractive proposition for doctors. This would mean that the government must invest in infrastructure so that the doctors can do justice to their job and be of use to the people they are meant to serve. Government must also provide doctors other incentives to opt for such postings. Better monetary compensation would be a good starting point.
Finally, has Ramadoss thought of how this scheme can be implemented in a foolproof manner? Given that most regulations can be flouted in this country by greasing a few palms, it is not going to be very difficult for students adamant on not going to a rural outpost to find a way out. Force is often counterproductive. It’s a better idea to use incentives.

This article appeared in the The Times Of India, Mumbai on 26th July 2008

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