Medical education should not be made an industry: Dr Shantha

Updated on: Monday, April 11, 2011

Noted oncologist Dr V Shantha cautioned against medical education turning into an industry and told the problem of inadequate availability of medical seats could be solved by establishment of colleges by non-government enterprises.

Noting that colleges should not be transformed into an 'industry', she said only 50 per cent of the total 271 medical colleges across the country were in government sector and the remaining were private or corporate run institutions.

Such institutions should conform to "ethical and altruistic codes and should not degenerate into centres of financial exploitations", Shantha, Chairperson of the Adayar Cancer Institute, said in her convocation address at the JIPMER here.

"The shortage made worse by reservations can be solved only by establishment of non-government medical institutions. But all of these charge fee in some form or the other which costs a fortune and is beyond the reach of the middle class families," she said.

She presented degree certificates to 224 candidates passing out of different disciplines in medicine from the premier autonomous health institute.

Expressing concern over the total lack of the component of "care giving in the training of medical students and post graduates", she said training must include ethical issues also as such issues had cropped up manifold with rise in high technology.

Director of JIPMER Dr K V S V Subba Rao presented the institute report.

Medical education should not be made an industry: Dr Shantha

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