Puneeth Rajkumar Hrudaya Jyoti schemewill be extended to all taluks: Min
Chairing a meeting of the health officials from districts under Belagavi division here on Tuesday, he said there has been no increase in the number of deaths due to heart attack.
He said the govt has taken steps to upgrade 10-bed hospitals in nine taluks of the state to 30-bed hospitals and develop them into community health centres. This includes Alnavar and Annigeri hospitals in Dharwad district, and the work will begin from Nov, the minister said.
"The health department is not working to protect the interests of any individuals, but is working transparently for the health of the community. For the first time, more than 5,000 doctors and staff in the department have been transferred through counseling," Rao said, and advised everyone to perform their duties well in public interest.
Rao clarified that as of now, there is no plan to shift the Dharwad Civil Hospital to another location.
Funds have already been provided for the necessary equipment and repairs of the hospital.
"The Gruha Arogya Yojana, which was launched in June, has been launched in every district and taluk, " he said .
Recruitment of docs
The minister said a notification will be issued this year inviting applications for 2,000 posts of MBBS doctors and specialist doctors. Vacant posts in all govt hospitals will be filled by next month, he added.
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The Print
7 hours ago
- The Print
Pitched as ‘educational revolution' in 2022, why the ‘MBBS in Hindi' initiative has seen few takers
Launching the MBBS course in Hindi in Bhopal on 16 October 2022, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that it was in line with the National Education Policy 2020, which emphasised imparting primary, technical and medical education in students' mother tongues. The trigger: A lukewarm response to an initiative started in 2022 through which the course was launched in Hindi in MP, a first anywhere in the country. New Delhi: Last month, the Madhya Pradesh government announced that a rebate of 50 percent in examination fee will be offered to MBBS students opting to write the annual tests in Hindi. Those topping the test in the language will also be given cash awards, with the highest reward set at Rs 2 lakh. Calling it an 'educational revolution' aimed at restoring the pride of 'our languages', Shah had dedicated text books for MBBS first year, translated to Hindi from English and procured at a cost of Rs 10 crore. Over the next two years, state governments in at least four other states, including neighbouring Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, also announced plans to replicate the project. However, while some students, enthused by the idea of studying medicine in the language they are most comfortable with, picked the textbooks—mostly kept in college libraries following supplies by publishers such as J.P. Publication and Elsevier—not a single student in any of these states so far has written the MBBS examination in Hindi. The reason for this, according to students, is the fear that studying medicine in the local language may limit their potential and career prospects, which demand English proficiency. 'I come from a small town and though I went to an English medium school, I am not very comfortable in the language,' a second-year MBBS student at Gandhi Medical College in Bhopal and a resident of Rewa, who did not wish to be named, told ThePrint. The idea of studying medicine in Hindi seemed good initially, she said. 'That's because when we get into pursuing the course, there are two big challenges—learning medicine and a language that is not our first language. The new textbooks, which are in Hinglish—interspersed with technical words in English with grammar in Hindi—made life easy, at least during the initial few months. 'Yet, when I assessed whether I should opt for the first year examination in Hindi, there was not much confusion around the decision because I know that evidence-based medicine is universal and it is better to follow it in a universal language,' the second year-MBBS student remarked. According to officials in MP Medical Science University, while all 18 government medical colleges under it have ensured that Hindi textbooks till 3rd year of MBBS are available for those interested, only about 10-15 percent of the students opted for the book. Also, there are no takers for the examinations in Hindi. 'We are trying to push for it but students do not seem to be finding it useful from the career perspective,' said a senior official in the university, requesting anonymity. ThePrint reached out to Rajendra Shukla, deputy chief minister and state health minister over the phone. This report will be updated if and when a reply is received. In other states too, the initiative has met a similar response. In Bihar, for instance, while nearly 20 percent of the first-year MBBS students last year in a few government medical colleges opted for Hindi books, none wrote the examination in the language this year. 'There has been an option for MBBS students to now study the course in Hindi… (but) the response has not been very enthusiastic though we tied up with MP-based publishers of Hindi textbooks to encourage students to pursue the programme in the language,' conceded Shashank Sinha, special secretary in the Bihar state health department. The trajectory has not been different in Chhattisgarh, UP and Rajasthan. Yet, proponents of the initiative feel it's an experiment worth pursuing. 'I am not a fanatic (over this project) but I feel it's an initiative that needs to be introduced and encouraged. When countries like Japan, China, France and Germany teach medicine to their students in their mother tongue and can still be competitive globally, why can't we do that?' asked Dr B.N. Gangadhar, outgoing chairman of the National Medical Commission (NMC) which regulates medical colleges across India. But few others agree. 'Our realities are different from those countries, where mostly one language dominates,' said Dr Shivkumar Utture, former NMC member and president of the Maharashtra Medical Council. The initiative, he said, has not been thought through or planned well and was started without holding wide consultations to assess ground realities. 'Due to these factors,' Utture said, 'the response is poor among MBBS students'. Breaking barriers or creating them? The argument given in favour of the initiative is that it will empower students from small towns and rural areas. 'The idea is to ease challenges that new MBBS inductees face when they join medical colleges. Being armed with a textbook in their first language is likely to make the navigation easier. I faced a similar problem when I went into medical college decades ago because I was not well versed in English,' Gangadhar told ThePrint. But those studying medicine now have different opinions. In a globalised world, which wants to connect in a common language and exchange ideas on a daily basis, these thoughts are outdated, they say. 'The Hindisation of MBBS curriculum in the current circumstances is a regressive step and it is only a political stunt aimed to appease certain groups,' Dr Amit Banjara, secretary of the Junior Doctors' Association, Chhattisgarh, said. According to Dr Harjit Singh Bhatti, a geriatrician based in Delhi, who completed his MBBS from Government Medical College Jabalpur in 2010, pursuing the course in Hindi may limit the students for life. 'It may actually end up creating barriers for doctors rather than opening doors for them because science constantly evolves and as practitioners of modern medicine, they have to be comfortable in a language that is acceptable and usable worldwide, irrespective of our background,' Bhatti said. 'Reaching patients in a language they understand' The advocates for MBBS in Hindi also argue that those studying in Hindi, or in other regional languages once they are available, is likely to help medical practitioners communicate better with their patients. The statistics show that nearly 60 percent MBBS pass-outs prefer to work in the states from which they completed their course, pointed out the outgoing NMC chairman. 'Against this background, it makes sense that they study the textbooks in a language which can also be the language of their communication with the patients,' Gangadhar insisted. Many public health specialists, however, had a differing opinion. 'I am for education in one's mother tongue but I fully disagree about the same in national or state languages. Hindi, for example, is an urban language, which is seldom spoken or understood in most rural areas of what we call Hindi heartland,' said Raman V.R., a public health expert from Chhattisgarh. The lingua franca of Hindi heartland are actually Diaavadhi, Bhojpuri, Brij, Khari boli, Magahi, Maithili, Garhwali, Kumaoni and Pahadi, among others, according to the public health specialist. Further, without having a change in cultural orientation around languages, it is difficult to prepare useful textbooks or reading material in non-English Indian languages, as the broader language structures and vocabulary are heavily influenced by Sanskrit in most local languages, experts also point out. 'As a person who tried to prepare resources and training material in Malayalam and Hindi, I have seen these challenges and I have been struggling myself at times, when it comes to preparing communicative material,' said Raman. He added that unless there is a change in the larger approach across educational, administrative and societal levels about languages and communication, a reform limited to one sector can only lead to a backlash and it's better to orient doctors about the cultural and behavioral aspects of treating the rural population. Those specialising in public health also said that while using regional languages to make higher education accessible is beneficial in itself, it needs to be backed up by research journals in that language. For instance, there are quality scientific journals in languages such as French, German, Swedish, Chinese, Russian journals and Japanese. As medicine is an evolving science and doctors need to constantly upgrade their knowledge, the current push may lead to outdated doctors for rural areas, said Dr Prabir K.C., an independent public health consultant from Kolkata. The NMC chairman, meanwhile, maintained that the progress of the Hindi push in MBBS course and the students' response to it can be assessed only 5-10 years down the line. 'We can then decide whether the intended purpose of the initiative is being fulfilled or not,' he said. (Edited by Viny Mishra) Also read: Doctors welcome MP's decision to scrap seat-leaving bond for MBBS students. What the policy entails
Time of India
18 hours ago
- Time of India
Probe ordered into ragging allegations at Kurnool medical college
1 2 Tirupati: The management of Kurnool govt medical college has ordered an enquiry following allegations of ragging from some first year students. Medical college principal C Narasamma said she received an email complaint from first year MBBS students about third year students subjecting them to ragging when they refused to contribute donations for the upcoming Vinayaka Chaviti festival. After receiving the complaint, the principal summoned the men's hostel warden and issued a circular, warning students that the college management will take stern action if someone sought donations for Vinayaka festival. "We have also asked the anti-ragging committee to enquire into the allegations at the men's hostel," Narasamma said. Kurnool police also came to know about the ragging alllegations and inspected the men's hostel. Police, who also interacted with members of the anti-ragging committee, said they will wait for the outcome of the committee's report and act further. Meanwhile, state health minister Satya Kumar spoke to Kurnool medical college principal and enquired about the allegations. He directed the principal to submit a detailed report on the incident and asked to take tough action against those found indulging in ragging acts at the college/hostel premises. Get the latest lifestyle updates on Times of India, along with Friendship Day wishes , messages and quotes !
The Hindu
20 hours ago
- The Hindu
How distance Ph.D.s and non-MBBS appointments are undermining India's clinical teaching standards
The slow erosion of India's medical education standards is not occurring through a single cataclysmic policy misstep, but through the quiet normalisation of appointing non‑MBBS distance Ph.D. degree holders to core teaching posts in medical colleges. For a proportion of previous and recent appointments, such non‑medical appointees reportedly completed their Ph.D. through distance or part‑time modes while simultaneously holding full‑time employment in another institute—a dual track that precludes the sustained, supervised laboratory and pedagogic immersion essential for authentic academic formation. Regulatory oversight? These distance or part‑time Ph.D. programmes are outside the regulatory purview of the National Medical Commission (NMC)—the NMC neither designs their curriculum nor directly inspects, audits, or certifies their conduct—meaning the medical education regulator has no effective control or quality oversight over the very doctoral credentials now being used to claim equivalence with clinically trained MBBS postgraduate faculty. What at first glance looks like an efficient stop‑gap to fill perceived faculty shortages is, on closer scrutiny, a dilution of the clinical, ethical, and integrative foundation on which competent physicians are built. Undergraduate medical training - the MBBS pathway is a longitudinal, immersion‑based formation: structured exposure to Anatomy, Physiology, Biochemistry, Pathology, Pharmacology, Microbiology, Forensic Medicine, Community Medicine, and a spectrum of clinical rotations — all under a regulated environment that binds the learner and later the practitioner to explicit professional conduct norms, licensure examinations, bedside responsibilities, interdisciplinary team communication, and patient accountability. Impacts on curriculum delivery Similarly, post graduate course is also in control of the Competency-based medical education (CBME) programme of the regulatory body, NMC. But a distance‑mode doctoral program and by Non-MBBS teachers pursued parallel to unrelated full‑time employment cannot replicate the crucible of supervised patient contact, procedural stewardship, morbidity–mortality analysis, ethical case discussions, real laboratory quality systems, and iterative assessment that shapes judgment in a medical graduate. When colleges accept individuals without this integrated clinical apprenticeship to teach foundational subjects, the curriculum fractures: facts are transmitted, but the living clinical context and safety net of tacit knowledge are thinned. Distance Ph.D. pathways—especially when undertaken concurrently with another full‑time institutional job—often emphasize dissertation completion logistics over immersive pedagogy or translational applicability. Medical Students taught under faculty whose own training was not scaffolded by mandatory clinical postings are less likely to receive the nuanced integration: how a biochemical pathway alteration manifests at the bedside, how anatomical variants complicate an emergency procedure, why microbiological resistance patterns alter antibiotic stewardship, how pharmacokinetics aligns with organ dysfunction scoring, or how physiological compensations appear in vital trend curves. The loss is cumulative and only surfaces years later in weaker differential diagnoses, fragmented reasoning on ward rounds, and diminished readiness for unforeseen public health crises. Knowing subject content Vs Pedagogy Advocates of widening the faculty pool argue that 'subject content is universal' and that any research doctorate adds scholarly depth. Scholarly depth is valuable; however, a distance or part‑time doctorate earned concurrently with full‑time service elsewhere and unanchored to continuous, verifiable lab supervision or patient‑centered clinical correlation cannot instill the reflexive safety lens essential for teaching future prescribers. Pedagogy in medical sciences is not solely the transmission of molecular cascades or histological slides; it is the curation of clinically salient emphasis—knowing which deviation matters urgently for patient outcomes and which is academic ornament. That calibration arises from lived participation in multidisciplinary rounds, mortality audits, infection control committees, transfusion reaction reviews, pharmacovigilance reporting, and real‑time management of complications. Without it, teaching risks becoming an abstract enumeration of lists, divorced from risk stratification and pragmatic triage thinking. Talent drain? A second risk vector emerges in academic ethics and assessment integrity. Distance/dual‑employment Ph.D. entrants—particularly where oversight of thesis originality, sample authenticity, ethical clearance rigor, time‑on‑task documentation, and statistical methodology is uneven—may unintentionally propagate lax standards among MBBS students observing their evaluators' citation practices or superficial engagement with updated guidelines. The message a system sends when it elevates distance, simultaneously‑employed credentials over regulated, full‑time, residency‑rooted academic progression is that experiential clinical immersion and competency‑based milestones are negotiable. This disincentivises bright MBBS graduates from pursuing teacher–scholar careers; they witness equivalence (or even preference) granted to those who bypassed the demanding crucible they endured. The talent drain that follows redirects academically gifted clinicians to corporate hospitals or overseas fellowships rather than classrooms where standards appear administratively malleable. CBME impaired? Moreover, the 'faculty shortage' justification is frequently unsubstantiated when one audits the actual pool of eligible MBBS postgraduates and junior faculty awaiting timely recruitment or promotion. Bottlenecks typically lie in delayed selection processes, unfilled sanctioned posts, opaque panels, or wage disparities—not in an absolute absence of clinically trained educators. Substituting structurally expedient distance/dual‑employment Ph.D. holders masks governance failures instead of correcting them. Long term, this misallocation impairs implementation of Competency‑Based Medical Education (CBME), which demands scenario‑based learning, early clinical exposure, skills lab mentorship, simulation debriefs, and Workplace Based Assessments—activities requiring mentors with authentic clinical anchoring and physical presence. Policy Inconsistency with CBME Implementation: Notably, in its recent gazette notifications preceding Teachers Eligibility Qualifications (TEQ) 2025, the NMC itself had reduced the permissible percentage of non‑MBBS faculty—first in Pharmacology and Microbiology, and then further in Anatomy, Physiology, and Biochemistry—explicitly citing the roll‑out of CBME and the consequent need for clinically anchored teaching. If CBME's very premise is integrated, bedside‑linked learning, what policy logic now justifies reinstating higher quotas for non‑MBBS appointees in TEQ‑2025? The reversal appears not to be evidence‑driven but expediency‑driven, undermining the pedagogic rationale NMC advanced barely a year earlier. Questioning the Rationale for re‑inclusion: When the regulator had already acknowledged that MBBS‑trained faculty are essential for CBME's success—and when postgraduate (MD/MS) doctors in these subjects are increasingly available—why reopen the door for Non-MBBS distance/part‑time Ph.D. holders outside NMC oversight? This about‑turn demands transparent disclosure of: (a) the data sets reviewed, (b) stakeholder consultations conducted, and (c) the projected impact on CBME outcomes that purportedly justify this shift. Call for Evidence and Transparency: TEQ‑2025 should therefore be compelled to publish a comparative impact assessment: What measurable deficits arose from the reduced non‑MBBS percentages that necessitated their resurgence? Absent such data, the move appears to legitimize administrative shortcuts rather than solve genuine faculty gaps. If quality was the stated reason to decrease non‑MBBS representation earlier, quality cannot simultaneously be the reason to increase it now. Research culture also suffers. Foundational departments steward antimicrobial stewardship, pharmacogenomics, molecular pathology validation, high‑throughput clinical biochemistry quality assurance, public health surveillance analytics, and emerging biomarker translation. Faculty whose doctorates were accumulated in distance modes while employed full time elsewhere may generate publication counts, but translational relevance, patient safety nuance, and interdisciplinary collaboration depth often lag, shrinking institutional capacity to contribute meaningfully to national health priorities (antimicrobial resistance containment, rational drug use, outbreak analytics, non‑communicable disease biomarker validation). Regulatory complacency over equivalence invites proliferation of marginal institutes offering distance doctoral products to meet 'demand,' inflating a supply of paper‑qualified yet clinically unseasoned aspirants and accelerating a downward feedback loop. The absence of NMC oversight over these distance Ph.D. courses further compounds the risk: no centralized standards for laboratory infrastructure, ethical review rigor, or supervisor–student ratios are enforced, allowing uneven quality to masquerade as equivalent scholarship. Medical Students—the most vulnerable stakeholders—may initially remain unaware. Pass percentages can stay superficially stable if examinations overemphasize recall. Yet internship supervisors will perceive weaker synthesis skills; postgraduate entrance outcomes may reveal deteriorating performance in integrated reasoning segments; patient safety indicators may subtly decline. By the time alarms are undeniable, affected cohorts cannot retroactively receive authentic mentorship. Preventive action is therefore imperative now. Who ensures quality? Policy and governance imperatives: Reaffirm that core preclinical and paraclinical teaching posts must be held by MBBS graduates with requisite postgraduate degrees and documented full‑time academic engagement; disallow acceptance of distance/part‑time Ph.D.s pursued concurrently with other full‑time employment as equivalently qualifying for these posts—especially noting that such courses are presently outside NMC regulation and control; mandate transparent, third‑party audited logs of laboratory presence, ethical approvals, raw data provenance, and supervisor sign‑offs for any doctoral work considered in faculty selection; It should also be required that every faculty member's doctoral credentials are screened and vetted by the NMC or its designated authority—recognising that to date there has been no systematic screening of non‑MBBS appointees who completed distance Ph.D.s while employed full time in Indian medical colleges; realign promotion criteria toward educational innovation, validated clinical–research integration, mentorship hours, and ethical scholarship instead of mere credential accumulation; and accelerate timely recruitment of clinically grounded educators through streamlined selection panels, competitive retention packages, and structured pedagogical upskilling. Medical education is a national trust. Diluting its human resource standards by normalising distance, dual‑employment Ph.D. credentials for core teaching posts—credentials produced in courses that the NMC does not directly regulate—risks manufacturing future practitioners less prepared for complex, resource‑constrained, ethically intricate healthcare realities. India's demographic scale, epidemiological dual burden, and aspirational global health leadership demand the opposite: uncompromising reinforcement of clinically rooted academic excellence. Reversing this quiet slide—especially the pattern where most non‑medical entrants secured distance doctorates alongside full‑time external jobs beyond NMC oversight—protects both the competence and the conscience of tomorrow's healers. If CBME demanded fewer non‑MBBS teachers yesterday, how does the same CBME demand more of them today—without any new evidence on learning outcomes? (Dr. Anoop Singh Gurjar is the General Secretary, All India Pre and Para Clinical Medicos Association (AIPCMA) and a member of Rajasthan Medical Council)
