PG diploma in medical specialties lauded as a revolutionary measure

New Delhi: Association of National Board Accredited Institutions (ANBAI) has welcomed the central government’s decision to introduce postgraduate (PG) diploma courses in eight medical specialties under National Board of Examinations (NBE).

According to Dr Devi Shetty, the patron of ANBAI, this move will help create more specialist seats in rural areas. “Every year, approximately 1,70,000 MBBS graduates apply for about 50,000 PG seats under Medical Council of India and National Board of Examinations. Those who aren’t selected waste two to five years attending coaching classes in Kerala or Kota and in the end, some even give up on becoming doctors,” Dr Shetty said.

Adding a few thousand seats in PG diploma courses will immediately bring these doctors back to patient care in accredited government or private hospitals, he added.

“It also gives them the option to apply for an MD or MS seat after completion of the course. It is an attractive alternative for bright young doctors from poor families, because the diploma course is available at a nominal cost, and they earn a stipend during the programme,” the ANBAI patron said.

According to Dr Shetty, who is a renowned cardiac surgeon and the chairman of Narayana Healthcare, most public hospitals suffer from acute shortage of gynaecologists, paediatricians, family physicians, anaesthesiologists and radiologists. “If those hospitals introduce diploma training courses, the shortfall of medical specialists can be completely made up in two to four years,” he said. The PG diploma courses under the NBE include specialties, such as obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, anaesthesiology, tuberculosis and chest disease, and radio-diagnosis.

Dr Shetty said a woman dies during childbirth every 20 minutes in India. “We need to perform at least 4.2 million caesarean sections every year for 24 million pregnant women, and this requires at least 2,00,000 gynaecologists. But we have only about 40,000 practicing gynaecologists, of whom a significant number of them do not practise obstetrics, and most of them live in big cities. With the diploma, this huge shortfall can be bridged in a short period of time, dramatically reducing maternal mortality,” he added.