Senior doctors want medical syllabus revised

Updated on: Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Vice-Chancellor of Nitte University and senior orthopaedist M. Shantharam Shetty said here on Sunday that there was a need to revise the curriculum of medical education, with stress on preventing diseases.

S.K. Tiwari, former director, National Institute of Homeopathy, Department of Ayush, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said that many diseases could be prevented. Doctors should play a proactive role in preventing diseases.

They were addressing a gathering at a workshop on the National Medical Policy proposed and organised by the national medical wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) at the Indian Medical Association office. It had organised the workshop for taking suggestions from medical experts for including them in its proposed National Medical Policy in the party's manifesto for the next general elections.

Dr. Shetty, who spoke on “Medical education and national healthcare vision”, said that many communicable diseases affected the health of the poor not withstanding advanced healthcare facilities. Teaching about curing diseases was an integral part of medical education and would remain so, he said.

Need of the hour was to prevent diseases as people spent a considerable amount of their earnings on curing diseases.

Many borrowed loans for purchasing medicines and meeting hospital expenses. Curriculum of medical education should focus more on prevention of diseases rather than only curing aspects, he said.

The Vice-Chancellor said that the country produced about 35,000 medical graduates a year. They need to know the reality of life of people in rural areas. People in many villages did not have access to clean water and toilet facilities. Primary health centres of the government remained non-functional because of lack of infrastructure facilities and staff. People did not have access to satisfactory health facilities. Each medical student should be made to visit villages a day every week. “They should know the ground realities,” he said.

Dr. Shetty said the country had over 300 medical colleges now. It was important to assess the importance of 30,000 medical graduates to society.

The Vice-Chancellor said that medical science had become complex with branches of medicine such as allopathy, ayurveda, yoga, unani, homoeopathy, naturopathy, osteopathy, and so on. Hence integrated type of teaching was required.

Speaking on “anatomy and pathology of medical education and practice”, K. Mohan Pai, senior physician and cardiologist, said it was important to note that ayurvedic branch of medicine mentioned in Charaka Samhitha (200 B.C.) and Sushruta Samhitha (800 B.C.) had sustained even now.

Dr. Pai said that Medical Council of India had drifted away from the purpose for which it was set up. It had failed to ensure quality of medical education. He said that doctors should bury their differences and come together for suggesting steps for framing a quality National Medical Policy.

Dr. Tiwari spoke on “social political responsibility of medical professionals”.

Earlier, N. Yogish Bhat, Deputy Speaker in the Legislative Assembly, spoke.

Senior doctors want medical syllabus revised

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