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Mandatory rural service is a great idea. But a lot of issues need to be addressed before implementing it. Before I present my solutions, a little background. In the 1960s, a two-month rural stint use to be part of a medico’s course. During the two months, students were initiated into social and preventive medicine. Knowing the country, its people and their health problems, most of which can be cured with simple medicines, is important for a doctor.
Recently some doctors from France visited the suburbs of Vizag to learn how common ailments are treated with clinical diagnosis without the aid of costly diagnostic tests. Viewed against that context, our own medical students can enrich their knowledge by working in rural areas for some time. A cricketer who grows up playing the game in a galli and then a big stadium is always going to be more battle-hardened than one trained only in a stadium.
Having said that, our junior docs are asking valid questions. In my view, a rural stint of six months is sufficient. But it must be made part of the MBBS course, rather than introduced at the post-graduate stage, when it would be unfair. How justified are we to demand that our medical students serve in rural areas when our elected reps do not visit villages once they are elected? Have we not seen ministers making a grand show of visiting a village a month before elections and haranguing the poor doctor at the PHC for the lack of facilities? What can a doctor or a nurse do if there is one bed for three patients and even basic medicines are not supplied? Basically, the reluctance of the junior docs stems from the fear of being cannon fodder. Who wants to be a scapegoat?
Dr V Krishna Murthy, a 1996 alumnus of Guntur Medical College, is a specialist in internal medicine.
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