Quick! Send in the doctors sans medicines

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Follow us:WhatsappFacebookTwitterTelegram.cls-1{fill:#4d4d4d;}.cls-2{fill:#fff;}Google NewsJunior doctors are again on the warpath in protest against mandatory rural service. The government would have us believe that our medical interns are trigger-happy city slickers who are snobbish about working in villages where there are no discos to go to. But is there something to the case being made out by the junior docts? The doctors’ case is that as things stand, mandatory rural service is only meant to show that the government is doing something -- rather than something that works.The fact of the matter is that the state’s primary health centres (PHCs) are derelict. If there are doctors, there are no medicines. Or vice versa. In many places, neither exist. A majority of the PHCs lack clean water, uninterrupted power supply and minimum equipment.The best a junior doc can do in such conditions is to hold the patient’s hand and pray. The interns say the poor state of our PHCs shows that the government cares little for primary health care; instead, it pops its eyes at fivestar medicine, a scenario populated by pop star specialists and fancy gadgetry.The government spends close to Rs 800 crore per annum on the Arogyasri scheme which bankrolls tertiary treatment in wow hospitals while neglecting common ailments like malaria and diarrhoea, whiich are curable with cheap medicines if treated early but deadly if not.So how would you win a war by sending in a soldier without any artillery, or even small arms? Junior doctors are also protesting about the lack of clarity in the rules governing mandatory rural service.The government has not made it clear whether the rural stint will be part of the course or is to be treated as service for the purpose of higher education/ employment.To cut through the thicket of confusion, Express spoke to two senior doctors who in principle favour rural service for doctors but with riders.first published:September 05, 2012, 10:21 ISTlast updated:September 05, 2012, 10:21 IST
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Junior doctors are again on the warpath in protest against mandatory rural service. The government would have us believe that our medical interns are trigger-happy city slickers who are snobbish about working in villages where there are no discos to go to. But is there something to the case being made out by the junior docts? The doctors’ case is that as things stand, mandatory rural service is only meant to show that the government is doing something -- rather than something that works.

The fact of the matter is that the state’s primary health centres (PHCs) are derelict. If there are doctors, there are no medicines. Or vice versa. In many places, neither exist. A majority of the PHCs lack clean water, uninterrupted power supply and minimum equipment.

The best a junior doc can do in such conditions is to hold the patient’s hand and pray. The interns say the poor state of our PHCs shows that the government cares little for primary health care; instead, it pops its eyes at fivestar medicine, a scenario populated by pop star specialists and fancy gadgetry.

The government spends close to Rs 800 crore per annum on the Arogyasri scheme which bankrolls tertiary treatment in wow hospitals while neglecting common ailments like malaria and diarrhoea, whiich are curable with cheap medicines if treated early but deadly if not.

So how would you win a war by sending in a soldier without any artillery, or even small arms? Junior doctors are also protesting about the lack of clarity in the rules governing mandatory rural service.

The government has not made it clear whether the rural stint will be part of the course or is to be treated as service for the purpose of higher education/ employment.

To cut through the thicket of confusion, Express spoke to two senior doctors who in principle favour rural service for doctors but with riders.