05/08/2015
Karnataka RURAL Service Update: (3 articles below)……..
Now, there is no getting away from rural service (THE HINDU)
Bill making it mandatory for medicos gets presidential assent
Medical students can no longer shy away from the compulsory one year posting at a rural centre from this academic year with the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course Bill, 2012, receiving the presidential assent.
Till now, budding doctors could pay Rs. 1 lakh and receive an exemption from the compulsory rural service, but the Bill abolishes such “escape clauses” and ensures mandatory rural service. This would also mean that the duration of MBBS course would now become six-and-a-half years.
Disclosing to presspersons that the Bill had received the presidential assent, Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash R. Patil said that the President inked the Bill on May 29 and the provisions of the Bill would come into force with immediate effect. Dr. Patil said that provisions of the Bill would be applicable to MBBS students of both government and private medical colleges in Karnataka. Implementation of the Bill would help fill the vacant posts in primary health centres in remote areas, while exposing the entrants to the medical profession to the health conditions in rural parts of the State.
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What’s in store for first-timers of new rule (THE HINDU)
It will apply to students of 2015-16 batch PG Diploma courses and onwards
With the long-pending Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course Bill- 2012 finally getting the President’s nod, the 2015-16 batch of students in Postgraduate (PG) Diploma courses will be the first to be bound by the new rules.
Sources in the Department of Medical Education (DME) told The Hindu that the batch of students will start rural service in 2017-18. The PG Diploma course is for two years. On the other hand, students who will be admitted to MBBS courses this year will be studying for six-and-a-half years, with the one year rural service likely to be added at the end of the five-and-a-half-year course. At present, students have a one-year internship at the end of the four-and-a-half-year course.
Counselling
DME officials also said the process of allotting places for the mandatory rural service will not be very different from what was followed earlier. “Counselling will be held and places will be allotted on merit basis. We will provide all possible facilities. The requirements are not very high. The problem was a mental block. With this Bill, there will be no bond and everyone knows bonds never worked,” said an official.
While the new Bill removes the penalty clause, what happens if a medical student refuses to serve in a rural area at any cost? “Law will take its own course, as mandatory rural service is now a law,” the official said.
What happened earlier
Before this Bill, only around 14 per cent of the total number of MBBS students who passed out in the last three years (2011-12 to 2013-14) had opted to serve in rural areas. The penalty amount paid by the batch that passed in 2013–14 was the highest in three years — Rs. 6.68 crore.
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‘It’s only a partial solution’ - THE HINDU
The acute shortage of doctors that has hit healthcare in rural areas may be addressed with the compulsory rural service Bill, but only partially. This is not a permanent solution to the problem, argue members of the Karnataka Government Medical Officers’ Association (KGMOA).
KGMOA president T.A. Veerabhadraiah told The Hindu that the Bill does not provide for rural service doctors to conduct post-mortem and attend to medico-legal cases (MLCs). “If they have to attend to only out-patients and if the PHC or taluk hospital has no other doctor, who will attend to MLCs or conduct post-mortem?” he said.
“This is no alternative to the government expediting recruitment as several senior doctors will retire from service every year,” he said.
The last recruitment was done in 2010. However, of the 300 doctors recruited, only 160 reported. Similarly, in 2012, of the 350 specialists recruited, only 50 reported. “Unless the government offers higher salaries to attract doctors to government service, the shortage will continue to exist,” he said.
Two days ago, the State Cabinet finalised the draft rules to provide for a special recruitment of 1,401 doctors. This includes 983 posts of specialists with postgraduation qualification, 331 posts of general doctors with MBBS qualification, and 87 posts of dental doctors.
“Even with this, we may need at least 900 more doctors as the bed strength in most hospitals has increased over the years. Of the total 6,000 sanctioned posts, 1,700 are vacant,” said KGMOA secretary G.A. Srinivas.
