Medical education in India: Disturbing trends.

Abstract

Medical education in India appears to be failing on multiple counts. Much has been written on this subject, including in this journal [1, 2]. Yet, little seems to have changed and in fact, disturbing new trends have arisen. An article in The India Forum by historian and medical commentator, Kiran Kumbhar, points out glaring errors of assumption and planning by the Government of India (GOI) and its Ministry of Health [3]. This has led to the mushrooming of privately-owned medical colleges without adequate infrastructure and faculty, leading to low quality medical education; in time this will result in low quality healthcare services. For some years now, authorities have cited a World Health Organization (WHO) requirement of "one doctor for 1000 patients" for an effective health policy; Kumbhar points out that such a WHO metric does not, in fact, exist! [3] Ostensibly, under pressure to achieve this unsubstantiated target, the government has encouraged privatisation of medical education, focused primarily on achieving the desired numbers of doctors. Recently, the Government even claimed success in achieving this magical ratio, using doubtful data and statistical calisthenics [3], even while the health metrics of the country continue to be woefully low, and millions do not have any access to affordable medical care.