Kanka Pandita
We strive very hard to get quality healthcare facility at affordable cost during our ailments. Although it is not only our fundamental right but need of the hour too, still we are lacking behind in this field both at infrastructural level as well as its manpower strength, provided either through its private or government delivery system. Restriction of slightly better healthcare facilities to mega cities further deprives a large rural population of this much needed important service. Society together with the government needs to come up with conscious efforts of creating simultaneous mechanism for the development of both healthcare infrastructure and medical education in our country. It is fact that we have merely one medical doctor for nearly 1400 citizens as compared to 250 persons in developed nations. So together, our urgent attention is needed to reduce the huge gape of acute shortage of medical professionals in India.
Medical education is still considered to be the choicest professional courses in our society, due to which this attraction can be easily preferred as an immediate solution to this vital national problem. In our education system, aspiring to become a medical doctor start from 10th standard of schooling where students opt for studying biology courses, that is pre requisite for studying medicine in India. Students are being further channelized to its specificity through 12th standard pre medical education. Carefully screened at national level all India competitive examination process of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), these aspirants compete for nearly 85,000 under graduate medical seats those are available in both government and private medical colleges spread all across our country. This competition turns much tougher under the provisions of socio-economic and other types of reservations envisaged in this process.
On all India basis, such fifty percent medical students out of total of nearly one and half crore 12th standard students, only about eighteen lakh candidates become eligible to write NEET examination held annually. Thereafter, on basis of fixed percentile score in this NEET examination, again approximately nine lakh aspirants qualify to compete for these 85,000 under graduate medical seats available under Indian medical education system. Thus every year only 1 out of nearly 80 biology studying students, make it to become a doctor, who is truly difficult and too less in number to meet their rising demand in our country. Number of medical aspirants is increasing day by day but medical admissions are not proportionately increasing to that extent in order to address this genuine demand. Further, sizable number of left out aspirants out of this tough competition, turn abroad mostly to countries like Bangladesh and Ukraine for studying medical education, where it is comparatively easy to crack in. This unethical trend not only result in to our brain drain but also amount to huge loss to our national exchequer.
Conclusively, the process of selection to the medical course in India need to be eased out, exactly not at the cost of its quality competition, besides increasing the number of medical seats and medical colleges in our country. It will surely address the existing shortage of medical professionals in India, else highly demanded medical education shall continue to remain a distant dream, that ultimately determine the efficiency of delivery of quality healthcare facility in our country. Upcoming model of public private participation (PPP) can also be considered as an alternative to achieve maximum success in spreading medical education sooner than later.
(The author is pursuing Medical Education at New Delhi).
