IMA terms Niti Aayog Bridge Course proposal a ‘Myth’; claims no shortage of doctors in country
Abhay Anand | April 22, 2019 | 03:39 PM IST
NEW DELHI, APRIL 22: Ahead of Niti Aayog meeting in the national capital to allow a ‘Bridge Course’ between BDS and MBBS, allowing dentists to practice family medicine, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has come out strongly against the proposal terming it a ‘myth’. It as also claimed that there is no shortage of doctors in the country and it is the government which do not have the capacity to absorb all the MBBS graduates, leaving them unemployed.
Niti Ayog is likely to hold the meeting with representatives of the Dental Council of India, senior officials of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) and other senior doctors to discuss the modalities of a three-year bridge course. The IMA has termed the idea of the course as ‘Bridge to Nowhere’, it says, “Mid-level providers are a myth. Every Government falling for this myth only exposes the shallow thought process and utter disregard for human life.”
The Government aims to improve the doctor-patient ratio and increase access to health care for the rural population by taking service of these mid-level health providers in various health centres across the state, especially in areas where there is an acute shortage of MBBS doctors.
Dr. Santanu Sen, National President, IMA has claimed that there is no shortage of doctors in the country. He said, “63,250 MBBS graduates come out of 494 medical colleges of India. India has only 23,729 postgraduate seats. The fact remains that the Government do not have the capacity to absorb the rest of them. Every year the unemployment amongst young medical graduates is a cause for great concern.”
The proposal is based on the fact that the MBBS and dental courses in the country follow the same training and curriculum for the first three years.
There are total 68,028 MBBS seats available across 476 medical colleges in the country, while there are 27,148 BDS seats offered by 309 colleges. The National Testing Agency (NTA) will conduct the nationwide National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) on May 5 this year for which around 15.19 lakh candidates have applied.
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