To tackle the shortage of doctors at hospitals, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has proposed a diploma course for doctors on the lines of engineering diplomas. She directed Health Secretary Narayan Swarup Nigam to look into the possibility of starting such a course. While speaking at the review meeting of ‘Utkarsh Bangla’ on Thursday, the CM said that through such a diploma many children will be able to get a chance to study medicine.
“Please find out if we can start a diploma course for doctors, just like we have for engineers. Then many children will get a chance to study medicine through diploma courses,” she said, according to ANI.
According to the ANI, the West Bengal CM said that the a regular MBBS course takes five years to complete, and then the students have to study further to become junior doctor. Diploma doctors can cover primary health care centres, the outcome will be good. This will help the growing demands for doctors.
Meanwhile, the number of patients keeps increasing. So, introducing diplomas, the shortage in primary health centres can be met by hiring such diploma holders as doctors, she added.
“The doctors now have to complete their five-year curriculum for a regular MBBS course. They have to study again and then join as junior doctors. There has been an increase in the number of seats, hospitals and patients. If in parallel, there are diploma doctors to cover the primary health centres, it will give a good outcome. This will cater to the growing demand for doctors and population,” Mamata asked Health Secretary N S Nigam as per ANI.
She asked the health secretary to form a committee to decide on the legal aspects of such diploma courses to train more doctors for primary healthcare units.
Mamta also stressed on the need for meeting the shortage of nurses at hospitals. The chief minister also asked the officials to look into the opening of 100 more nursing training institutes in the state.