HYDERABAD:
The new Act making one-year rural service compulsory for
new MBBS doctors is all set to snowball into a major controversy as
chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy has already signed an agreement
with private medical colleges, exempting management quota students from rural
stint.
Representatives
of private medical colleges who hold 60% stake in the medical education sector
in Andhra Pradesh say since management quota candidates do not get any government
aid unlike merit students, it is unfair to force them to do a year's rural
stint.
But the
consensual agreement signed with the state government two months ago is likely
to be overridden as the Centre is firm on fresh medical graduates across all
categories doing a rural stint.
Currently,
there is one doctor for every 1,950 people, but the ratio gets worse in rural
areas as 75% to 80% of hospitals are concentrated in urban areas, whereas 70%
of the population live in rural areas. The government might have the best
intention to improve services in villages, but private medical colleges said
they are not willing to play ball.
"Government
is going to get into huge trouble. We will not follow the new rule for
management quota seats," said Dr G Bhaskar Rao, president, All India
Unaided Medical Colleges and Universities Association. "If the government
is unwilling to abide by the consensual agreement approved by the chief
minister , we will nullify seat-sharing agreement with the government in our colleges
and take over 100% seats," he added. If any of the terms are nullified,
there is a clause in the MoU which says colleges will not share seats with the
state government, Rao added.
A total of
60% seats in private medical colleges are filled on merit basis through
counselling conducted by the NTR University of Health Sciences, while the
rest seats are filled under management quota.
According
to the Kondru Murali, minister for medical education, there are a whopping
1,468 vacancies in state-run health facilities. With 8,000 undergraduate and
postgraduate doctors graduating annually, posting them to districts and
villages is a mammoth task, experts said.
The stand
on management quota students not doing rural stint has flummoxed experts,
besides leaving students in a quandary as the Act states that MBBS graduates
will not be allowed to write PG entrance unless they do a rural stint.
An adamant
director of medical education Dr Vishnu Prasad said all doctors trained in
government and private colleges will have to do one year rural service.
"Every
agreement signed in the past ceases to exist. There is no more confusion.
Students will have to do rural service," said Dr Prasad.