MIGRATION OF INDIAN DOCTORS

• The largest exporter of doctors globally is India. US,UK,Canada,Australia & Gulf countries are preferred destination.

• Indian doctors in the US exceed 50,000,the largest group of physicians after nativeborn American doctors. There is one Indian doctor in the US for every 1,325 Americans in contrast with 1 in India for over 2,400 Indian.

• Around 30% of doctors in National Health Services,UK,are Indians. Specialists in anaesthesia,radiology and psychiatry are most sought after.

• About 25% practising physicians in Canada are foreign-trained. One out of 10 doctors,in Canada are of Indian origin.

• Gulf countries employ around 20,000 doctors from India.

• From AIIMS,New Delhi,56% of the doctors went abroad from 1956 to 1980.About 75% of graduates from AIIMS are currently continuing their studies in the West

Source: Regional Health Forum & ET on Sunday research

The Doctor is Out

India has less than half the number of doctors it needs.And its the largest exporter of doctors.The cure for both maladies is a massive supply-side response :: Ishani Duttagupta

The reports are in. And things don't look good. India just does not have enough doctors. There are only 6.13 lakh physicians in the country, against a requirement for 13.3 lakh - a staggering shortage of just over 50%, according to the World Health Statistics 2010 report. India has less than on

e doctor for a thousand people (0.6) as compared to China (1.4 doctors per thousand). In absolute numbers, the US - whose population is a fourth of India's - has more doctors than India.

Now analyse another set of numbers. The British Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (BAPIO) estimates that the UK has over 40,000 Indian doctors who are treating about half the population of Britain while the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) puts the US figures at 50,000. About 20% of doctors working in Australia have received their basic education in India while in Canada, one out of every 10 physician has roots in India.

In a reply in Rajya Sabha, health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad recently said that over 3000 Indian doctors have migrated overseas in the last three years. Quoting figures made available by the Medical Council of India, the minister said that doctors were going abroad to obtain higher qualifications and training or for prestigious assignments.

The diagnosis is clear: the Indian doctor is out. And he is practising his trade in other lands. "The UK and the US are the top two destinations for foreign-trained doctors," read a recent report by Ficci and health-care consultancy Hosmac. Canada and Australia are the other preferred destinations.

India's Headache

With many countries rolling out the red carpet for the best Indian doctors, India's problems of retaining top-notch medical talent is getting worse. Part of India's headache also stems from the growing disinterest of Indian students with the medical profession. "Working as doctors is not glamourous anymore. Young people are turning to more lucrative professions these days," says Charu Sehgal, senior director, Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu India, a consultancy.

Dr YK Gupta, the chief PRO at India's premier medical training institution the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), confirms that the number of students appearing for medical entrance examinations has been decreasing over the past few years. And the shortfall is felt the most in specialisations like nephrology, neurology and endocrinology.

"In India, we need 6-7 lakh more doctors and training them will take between five and 10 years. The huge gap between demand and supply did not happen only because of Indian doctors migrating to Western countries," says Dr Vivek Desai, MD of Hosmac. "The Indian government should think of local solutions to the human resources crunch," he adds.

According to estimates by the Task Force on Medical Education for the National Rural Health Mission, as of 2009-10, India had approximately 300 medical colleges admitting 34,595 students annually. India needs to open 600 medical colleges (100 seats per college) to meet the global average of doctors. Moreover, India produces 30,558 medical graduates every year while there are only 12,346 post-graduate seats available in various courses of all medical colleges, according to the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence. No surprise that the biggest draw for Indian doctors to move overseas is the huge domestic shortage of post-graduate medical seats.

Medical council to extend the NEET to post-grad courses

Following large-scale complaints over alleged rampant irregularities in the Medical Post-Graduate Entrance Test (PGET) conducted by states, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has decided to extend the Proposed National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) to post-graduate courses.

According to the proposal the first NEET-PG will be conducted in January-February 2012 for admissions into academic year 2012-2013. According to MCI officials, the council has also decided to hold similar national level single tests for admission to super specialty courses from the next academic year. A senior officer in the MCI told DC that, as per the proposal, MCI will go by the MBBS syllabus described in the MCI Regulations on Graduate Medical Education, 1997, for this entrance test.

Instead of an essay type format adopted in most of the PGETs conducted by the states, MCI will go with multiple choice questions (MCQs). This would be based on the MBBS syllabus as well as the knowledge that needs to be acquired during internship which is also described in the said regulations. "The distribution of questions, model questions and method of tie-breaking for ranking would be finalised after due deliberation," he said.

According to MCI officials, the council is also contemplating the option of introducing an online examination in line with the CAT. "Many states including Karnataka have proposed introducing online examinations to ensure transparency. We are holding talks with all states and health universities over the pros and cons of the online examination.

As the exam is dependent upon the MBBS syllabus there is no need for any discussion in this regard," he said. MCI's proposal over holding a single exam even for PGET has received mixed reactions in the state. On one side students feel that this will put an end to irregularities and corruption associated with the medical PG admission, while the RGUHS and state medical education officials feel that it would lead to an MCI monopoly in the admission process.

Dr. Raghavendra Gowda, a PGET aspirant said that the RGUHS PGET 2011 is the best example of how money plays a major role in PG admission. "I hope this new initiative will put an end to all the problems," he said.

Syllabus - National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET)

National Eligibily cum Entrance Test (NEET)

Students aspiring to get admission in top medical colleges will have to now take a common entrance exam. From the next academic session, aspiring doctors will have to appear for a Common Entrance Test (CET).

As per the latest updates, the Union health ministry and the Medical Council of India (MCI) have reached a consensus to roll out CET for admission to all government, private medical colleges and deemed universities for MBBS course from the 2012-13 academic session.

This historic decision was taken on a meeting held on Monday (July 18) chaired by Union health secretary K Chandramouli. The meeting was also attended by officials of MCI and CBSE.

The modalities of the meeting are being worked upon. There were also talks about bringing institutes like AIIMS under CET’s ambit.

If this decision is implemented then the prestigious AIIMS won’t be able to hold its own undergraduate entrance exam. Speaking to The Times of India, an official said, “The top students can choose to join AIIMS. However, more discussions will be held on this matter. The idea is to have one single medical entrance exam in the country,” an official said.”

There are also talks to review and revise the existing medical curriculum. As per MCI governing body, the medical curriculum of medical colleges will be revised and put up on the website for public comments soon.

The new, common entrance exam will be held for MBBS courses offered by all 271 medical colleges – 138 run by governments and 133 under private management. Approximately, 8-10 lakh students are likely to appear for the maiden CET exam.

This common entrance exam will bring more transparency and uniformity in selection students for medical colleges. At the moment, there are 31,000 MBBS seats for which 17 entrance tests are held.

Fact of the day

Your nose can remember 50,000 different scents. While a bloodhound’s nose may be a million times more sensitive than a human’s, that doesn’t mean that the human sense of smell is useless. Humans can identify a wide variety of scents and many are strongly tied to memories.

Fact of the day

It is not possible to tickle yourself. Even the most ticklish among us do not have the ability to tickle ourselves. The reason behind this is that your brain predicts the tickle from information it already has, like how your fingers are moving. Because it knows and can feel where the tickle is coming from, your brain doesn’t respond in the same way as it would if someone else was doing the tickling.