Reasoning that the plan to set up a rural MBBS course would most likely be impractical, Syeda Saiyidain Hammed, member of Planning Commission, said that the country needed to make use of the four lakh doctors who were practicing in the rural areas through national health schemes. She went on to say that services such as assisting normal delivery, TB screening and management and child vaccination programmes could be done by them, minutes after the union cabinet approved the draft of the next Five Year Plan.
The Commission, she said, had made this as a strong recommendation to states to help them achieve healthcare for all. “Several villages in the country have no adequate doctors. We are not going get them for some more years although we have recommended high salary, quarters and schooling for their children. No doctor wants to work in Maoist-infested areas or tribal villages. The rural doctor degree is also unlikely to take off as the Medical Council has raised objections. So, until we get doctors, its good to train the existing care takers and use their services,” she said.
She applauded Tamil Nadu as the state had managed to bring down maternal mortality rate through training women in primary health centres. “I have myself seen seven women help a woman deliver at a primary health centre in Dharmapuri. There were no doctors. All they had in the dingy room were some candles. It was phenomenal to see the mother and baby healthy,” she said. The Five Year Plan had increased the GDP for health from less than one per cent to 2.5 per cent by the end of 2017. Unlike the existing plans, it encouraged states to take up private-public partnerships and gave the states greater flexibility to utilise the funds. Special focus had been given to urban slums, she said.
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