25 August : Expressing concern over the poor medical care in the country, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said the charter of the Medical Council of India should be amended to rectify the "uneven" spread of medical education.
"Uneven spread of facilities for medical education is at the root of the problem of poor medical care in several states of India," he said while laying the foundation stone of the Jorhat Medical College at Jorhat in Assam on Monday.
Singh, who is on a two-day visit to Assam, the state which he represents in the Rajya Sabha, said the regulatory framework for medical education needs to "pro-actively promote" the spread of medical education to all parts of the country.
"There is a need to amend the charter of the Medical Council of India to incorporate this as a major objective," he said. Noting that the spread of medical institutions in the country was uneven, he said five southern states accounted for over 60 percent of the medical colleges in the country.
"This uneven spread of facilities for medical education is at the root of the problem of poor medical care in several states," he said.Singh, who also flagged off a mobile medical unit, said providing adequate medical facilities for the growing population was one of the major challenges before the country.
Referring to the major shortage of trained doctors and nurses, he said it must be addressed at both national and regional levels.The Prime Minister said the Planning Commission has projected a shortage of nearly one million nurses in the country in the next five years.
He said if the women in the North East region, who are well educated and progressive in outlook, were given the right opportunity; the country would see large number of lady doctors and nurses from the area in different hospitals and healthcare institutes across the country.
Singh said the country needed a large number of nurses to support various healthcare institutions and for the spread of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM).
Complimenting the Assam government for setting up three new medical colleges in addition to as many existing in Guwahati, Dibrugarh and Silchar, he said the impact of the improved healthcare infrastructure in the state was evident from the fact that institutional deliveries have doubled in the last four years.
Singh noted that Jorhat Medical College has been conceived as a state-of-the-art medical institute to impart quality medical education and also be able to provide high quality healthcare to the people of the region.
He also lauded the state government for its initiative to introduce "Boat Clinics" to provide health services to people in riverine areas.The Prime Minister said the UPA government has sought to reach quality health care to the doorsteps of the ‘Aam Admi’ through the NRHM. DDINEWS