REVIEW OF MEDICAL EDUCATION

REVIEW OF MEDICAL EDUCATION

By   Capt V Nagarajan. (Retd),   Kirthi Chakra,   <capt.naga@gmail.com>

 Do we need to review medical education in India? I feel any human activity needs periodic review, starting from daily to periodic review depending on the importance of the activity. Medical education has never been subjected to any major review in the 20^th and 21^st centuries in India. So it is time that we spent a few minutes on the topic.

           
The present system of MBBS was perhaps started by the British 200 years ago, when there was no speciality or super speciality. Doctors performed both the function of medicine and Surgery together. So they combined both medicine and surgery and coined the term MBBS or correctly BM and BS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery). But what is the scenario these days? Those who practice medicine do not practice surgery anymore. Further, surgery itself has become a super speciality in nature and as such even general surgeons cease to exist. So a medicine man need not study surgery and a surgery man need to study medicine to the extent relevent to him. So the present BM & BS or (MBBS) is obsolete. We need to separate these streams from the beginning of medical education. Even some advanced countries like US and Russia have started doing this. They have only direct MS or MD. The same is also applicable to courses like BAMS, BHMS, BSMS, BUMS etc.

            Today I read in the Times of India that Medical education in Tamil Nadu in Private medical colleges will cost around Rs 1 Crore.  This too is only for MBBS, which is no more considered adequate. After paying this type of money, what can we expect out of any human being? Rural service?  Dedication?

            So, what is the remedy for this problem? My suggestion would be that firstly we need to separate Medicine and surgery from the beginning. Secondly we need to scrap this MBBS and start giving BGM(Bachelor of general medicine) or BGS(Bachelor of general surgery) directly for 4 + 2 years of study after XII standard. Further we need to reduce the course fee from the present 1 Crore. We need to start a separate course of study for the Rural area called BSc (Hons) Rural  medical education and MSc (Hons) RME.

             Presently, The qualification required for joining medical college is 10+2/NEET in Physics, Chemistry and Biology. This also need to be revised to a 2 year course on introduction to medical education. That could be common for all the medical and Para Medical courses like MBBS, BDS, B Pharm, BSc Nursing, Chemistry, Bio Chemistry, Botany, Zoology, Micro Biology, Molecular Biology, Lab technology , Physician/dentist assistants, Physiotherapy ,BAMS, BHMS, BUMS, BSMS etc.

What could be the syllabus for the new 11^th/12^th class study?

Anatomy, Physiology, Food & Nutrition, Sanitation & Hygene, Preventive medicine, Chemistry, Bio Chemistry, Mol Biology, Micro Biology, Pathology, Lab Tecnnology etc.

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