In a major decision aimed at improving rural healthcare in India, the Government has decided to make it mandatory for all MBBS doctors to undergo one year rural posting to sit for post-graduation entrance examination.
Highly placed sources in the Health Ministry told PTI that Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad cleared a proposal in this regard and the Medical Council of India (MCI) is in the process of issuing a notification.
The decision will be applicable from the next academic session (2014-15) and all MBBS graduates seeking a post- graduate degree in medicine or surgery would have to work for one year in a village before they can take the PG entrance examination.
The decision came after two years of deliberations, as the earlier proposal of increasing the duration of the MBBS course to include a rural posting for doctors was scuttled after stiff opposition.
Doctors are unwilling to work in rural areas leading to people queuing up in city hospitals.
The Health Ministry and the country's medical education regulator (MCI) has been toying with the idea of compulsory rural posting for doctors for quite some time to help improve medical facilities in the rural hinterland of the country.
As published in DC