Context

India’s medical education system has attracted a lot of adverse attention due to the crisis in Ukraine and the resultant need for evacuating medical students, delay in post-graduate counselling because of reservation-related litigation and Tamil Nadu legislating to opt out of NEET. 

Daily News Analysis (DNA) For UPSC IAS Main Exams Current Affairs Preparation

Status of Medical Education in India

  • At present India has 554 medical colleges that annually provide 82,950 MBBS seats.
  • In order to cater to the increasing requirements of society, the government is promoting the opening of new medical colleges and increasing the number of seats in existing medical colleges.
  • It is estimated that by 2024 India would achieve a ratio of 1.03 doctors per 1000 population

Daily News Analysis (DNA) For UPSC IAS Main Exams Current Affairs Preparation

Problem in medical education in India

  • Demand-supply mismatch
    • There is a serious demand-supply mismatch as well as inadequate seats in terms of population norms.
  • Return on investment
    • The MBBS degree continues to be an attractive option.
    • However, unlike in the past, a substantial section of the middle class no longer feels that this is a good return of investment. 
  • Faculty crunch
    • The government’s initiative to open new medical colleges has run into a serious faculty crunch. 

Daily News Analysis (DNA) For UPSC IAS Main Exams Current Affairs Preparation

What needs to be done?

  • Rapid scale-up of seats
    • There are many who propose a rapid scale-up of seats by converting district hospitals into medical colleges using a private-public partnership model. 
  • Subsidizing Medical Education
    • The government should seriously consider subsidising medical education, even in the private sector, or look at alternative ways of financing medical education for disadvantaged students. 
  • Quality Assessment
    • Quality assessments of medical colleges should be regularly conducted and reports should be available in the public domain.

Daily News Analysis (DNA) For UPSC IAS Main Exams Current Affairs Preparation

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