Healthcare majors to infuse life into lagging medical education

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Tuesday , May 13, 2008 at 2155 hrs Even as they aggressively expand their chain of hospitals across urban India, healthcare majors Apollo Hospitals, Fortis and Max Healthcare have now evinced interest in setting up medical colleges and managing them in a bid to find a captive source for scarce medical talent in the country. The hospital majors have urged the government to introduce necessary policy changes and relax existing norms to help the country overcome its shortage of over six lakh doctors, two lakh dental surgeons and over 10 lakh trained nurses.

Aware of the acute shortage of medical professionals, the government is seriously considering opening up medical and dental education sector to the private sector, a member of the Planning Commission told FE. “The government’s role should be limited to opening a few high-quality institutions dedicated to research. Having regard to the magnitude of the investment requirement for healthcare education and the paucity of resources with government, there is no alternative to allowing greater involvement of the private sector in health education,” he said.

A delegation led by Apollo Hospitals group chairman Prathap C Reddy recently met Planning Commission officials and demanded lowering of entry barriers like land requirement and built-up space to realistic levels to help set up new colleges. The delegation, which also included Fortis Healthcare Ltd CEO and MD Shivender Mohan Singh and noted cardiac surgeon Naresh Trehan, proposed to double the number of medical colleges under the PPP over the next five years from current number of about 270.

But, for the idea to translate into reality, the human resource development ministry and medical education regulator Indian Medical Association (IMA) will have to amend the relevant rules to allow the private sector to set up medical colleges on their own. Under existing norms, the eligibility for setting up medical or dental colleges is limited to organisations such as the state government, university, an autonomous body promoted by the central and state governments, a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or a public religious or charitable trust registered under the Trust Act, 1882.