Centre clears rural health care course

Stressing that primary health care was the need of the hour, the Delhi high court directed the Medical Council of India (MCI) on Wednesday to prepare the curriculum for the three-year course on rural health care.

A division bench comprising chief justice Dipak Misra and justice Manmohan directed MCI to prepare the curriculum within two months for implementation within six weeks.

Appearing for MCI, senior advocate Amarendra Sharan, informed the court that all states have cleared the course and were ready to implement it.

Earlier, the court had asked the government to be sensitive towards the issue and said, “Health is primary concern of any homo sapien but since the time he was born he is fighting for getting the basic health care facilities, so it is the need of the hour to introduce the shorter MBBS course.

“The new course (Bachelors of rural health care) includes a three-year intensive classroom coaching and six months of internship. After passing the course a student has to work for five years in a rural area and then the student can do a two-year bridge course. A student who passes through will get a degree equivalent to MBBS,” Sharan told the court.

Satisfied, the court disposed of the case saying, “The purpose of launching this course is sacrosanct as people in villages are not getting proper health care. India is a country of villages and it deserves to have primary health care.”

There should be a condensed course, which should be encouraged, it added.

The court said this while hearing a public interest petition filed by a public health specialist, Meenakshi Gautham, who said that a person should practise modern medicine only after completing the MBBS course.

MBBS graduates, the petition said, either rush to big cities or go abroad, and thereby deprive a large section of people of proper medical treatment. People in rural areas are forced to depend either on untrained and uncertified rural medical practitioners, or on quacks.