Panel formed to explore possibility of diploma course for doctors
kolkata: A day after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had proposed a diploma course for doctors to tackle the shortage of doctors at hospitals, the state government on Friday formed a 14-member committee which will explore the possibility of developing healthcare professionals with three years of classroom and practical training.
The Chief Minister had mooted the idea to improve the access of healthcare especially in the rural areas by starting a diploma course for doctors which will help the government to tackle the scarcity of doctors. The committee members are Dr Sukumar Mukherjee, Dr Avijit Chowdhury, Dr G K Dhali, Dr Makhan Lal Saha, Dr Monimoy Banerjee, Dr Indranil Biswas, Dr Suhrita Paul VC, Dr Maitreyee Bhattacharya, Dr Rezaul Karim, Dr Avik Ghosh, Dr Siddhartha Niyogi, Director of Health Services and Debashis Bhattacharya Director of Medical Education, Dr Anirudh Neogi Special Secretary Medical Education and a representative from IMA and WBMC. The newly-constituted committee will examine the entire matter and will submit the report in 30 days. Thereafter, further decision in this regard will be taken after discussion with different stakeholders, reads a press statement.
The Chief Minister on Thursday asked Health Secretary NS Nigam to look into the same. “You (Nigam) please find out whether we can start a diploma course for doctors, just like we have for engineers. Several boys and girls will get the opportunity to enroll for the medical course”, Banerjee said on Thursday. She had added that a regular MBBS course takes five years to complete and asserted that a diploma course would address the shortage of doctors in the state. The proposed diploma course, as per sources within the Bengal Health department, could be of three years.
“We get doctors after a training period of five years which is a long time. In all these years, they have to study hard and sit for examinations. Besides, we utilise them as junior doctors across different hospitals while they are still studying,” Banerjee had stated.
