Mr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office, said that medical education should undergo a drastic transformation to make it contemporary and suitable to the emerging health paradigms of the country.
“We should not look at the medical education from the prism of 1947,” the Minister said, adding that not only the quality of education but also the cultural ethos of the medical professionals should be addressed to meet the health challenges of the country. To begin with, there should be inbuilt incentives for medical professionals to serve in the areas they hail from. “The focus should be on aptitude and commitment,” he added.
The Minister was addressing the 13th Health Summit of CII held today in New Delhi.
The Minister said that seamless supply of quality medical professionals is critical to meet the health needs of the country. He noted that there is resistance on the part of medical professionals to serve in backward areas. “We have to evolve pragmatic policies to address this issue to meet the supply side of the medical professionals,” he added.
Mr Singh observed that with the introduction of GST, there will be favorable impact on all industries, particularly the health sector. “Apart from easing doing business, GST will make taxes predictable. It will be particularly relevant to the far flung areas like North Eastern states,” he added. He said that the finance ministry is looking into some of the apprehensions expressed by the health sector players on the GST and assured that the government would take appropriate measures for allaying the hardships.
The Minister stressed that the private sector should increasingly cater to the semi rural and rural areas.
The Minister said that the Government is coming out with various schemes for short term training of medical professionals particularly in places where there is higher incidence of cancer and other chronic diseases. In areas like North Eastern states where there is a higher incidence of malignant cancer, there can be cooperation between private and public sector hospitals to find lasting solutions to the problems.
New Delhi
15 December 2016