March 28, 2008

Facing a Doctor Shortage, India Will Recognize Foreign Medical Degrees

To combat a severe shortage of doctors and in a move to attract back Indian doctors settled abroad, the Indian government has decided to recognize graduate medical degrees from Britain, the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, provided they are recognized in the respective countries.

Until now, doctors with an undergraduate degree from India but a graduate degree from another country were not allowed to practice in India. Indian doctors with graduate degrees from the approved countries will now be allowed to practice in India at any public or private hospital. They can also be recruited to teach undergraduates in any medical college, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The doctor-per-person ratio (including practitioners of Western medicine, homeopathy, and Indian systems of medicine) is 1 to 870, according to the Indian government. Not including practitioners of non-Western medicine, that ratio increases to 1 to 1,634. In rural India 67 percent of enrolled doctors do not report for duty, according to the government.

“It is clear from the above statistics that the country is in dire need of medical specialists to cater to the increasing demands of public health care in rural and urban areas,” the health ministry said in its statement. “Vast stretches of the countryside are not well equipped with health facilities, doctors and para-medical staff, creating serious imbalances in the health sector.”

Increasing Indian medical-school enrollments and the number of medical specialists cannot be achieved immediately, the ministry said, adding there are many Indian citizens with foreign medical degrees living abroad who are willing to return to India. —Shailaja Neelakantan

Comments

1. Now we need to find a big donor from India to establish Med School there! Leigh

   — Leigh Hurt    Mar 28, 11:51 AM    #

2. The USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and New Zealand should send back all Indian trained doctors. Many got free medical education in India and then ran to the West while Indians are dying in the countryside due to lack of medical doctors.

   — Karl    Mar 29, 06:23 AM    #

3. Many of them cannot get a place in for specialist education in India.They want financial support to study in US.They apply for graduate studies in biological sciences with full scholarships.They reach US and start applying for residencies and leave theirdoctoral program.Some US universities have got woser and do not admit Indian doctors. Anyway,these guys waste funds in India and in US.

   — romney    Mar 30, 08:35 AM    #

4. Get your facts straight before posting such comments. There is an extreme shortage of doctors in the US. Large number of these positions are filled by foreign medical graduates. You talk about sending these graduates back to their home countries…I’m sure you would not feel the same, if you were the one in an emergency situation in a remote area with no doctors to treat you.

   — S    Apr 7, 07:18 PM    #

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