‘Need to rethink one-yr rural stint’

HYDERABAD: Post-graduate medical students in Hyderabad, by and large, favour a rethink of the policy of compulsory rural service introduced by the state government, according to a recent survey which covered 330 medical students from three colleges and 323 dental students from five  colleges in the city.

The survey report, titled ‘Compulsory one year rural service - Stance of interns and postgraduates of medicine and dentistry in Hyderabad City, Telangana: A cross-sectional survey’, was published this month in the Journal of Indian Association of Public Health Dentistry.

As per report, close to 65 per cent of medical students and 60 per cent of dental students agreed that rural service is beneficial for them, helps them in improving their professional and decision-making abilities. However, the dichotomy in the report is that more than 60 pc of the students are of the view that the stint of rural service should be reduced from one year to six months.

When contacted, Dr G Srinivas, advisor to Telangana Junior Doctors Association (TJUDA), said, “There is a need for rethink of the one-year rural service policy. Most of the 1,200-odd PG students in TS do one-year service in tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad and a few other districts and just about 200 work in area hospitals.”

“This is helpful mainly to those students who plan to pursue a career in teaching because as per the new norms of Medical Council of India, only those who have served as senior resident doctor for a minimum of one year are eligible to apply for the post of assistant professor. Instead of forcing everyone to undergo the one-year compulsory rural service the government can make it optional so that only those who have interest in it can apply for it. These students can be paid a higher stipend.”

It may be mentioned here that while compulsory rural service for under-graduate MBBS students was scrapped by the state government in 2016, health minister Dr C Laxma Reddy said in Assembly in March 2017 that about `60 crore being spent every year on paying stipend to PG medical students posted in rural areas was going  waste as they were not performing their duties as expected.

The survey has also brought forth a few suggestions on how rural service can be made attractive to medical PG  students with 38 pc of respondents suggesting an increase in the number of casual leaves and 73 pc suggesting a hike in stipend.