MEDICAL EDUCATION IN ODISHA

Medical Education in Odisha at Cross Roads

Politicians can do anything to be in power, like giving freebies and waiver of loans with public money. Another way to please the public is to open up new medical colleges. We will confine ourselves to then scenario in Odisha only.

There is no doubt that the quality of education in every field has deteriorated, and medical education is no exception. Once the public has lost its faith on government-run hospitals, it is very difficult to change their mind-set. Opening up of new medical colleges is a very good step by the government but many questions remained unanswered. The first problem is where to get the teaching faculty. Another neglected area is accommodation facilities for students and employees. Equipments do not make a hospital famous without devoted and expert staff. Of all business ventures, running a hospital is the toughest; one consumer case can ruin the reputation of a doctor and the hospital.

In America hundreds of hospitals have been closed down recently due to financial crunch. Gone are the days when the cost of treatment on a patient hardly touched three digits; now an MRI alone costs between seven to ten thousand rupees. A bone marrow transplant, a kidney transplant cost a fortune to the patient and the institute. Newer drugs and the spread of non communicable diseases is a great challenge for better medical care through medical colleges. Nothing is free in most developed countries and Singapore leads the list. We have to learn a lot, from the way they control air pollution to their ethics of zebra crossings.

Coming to teaching faculty in different medical college hospitals, the number of vacancies is frightening. The other day a relative of mine who was a faculty member and head of the department of Jurisprudence told me that he retired because he was old enough, but the college authority does not allow him to leave the institute and his name is still there in the faculty list. Departments like anatomy, physiology, Jurisprudence and preventive medicines are running with skeletal stuff. Most of the senior college teachers of three medical colleges have either expired or they are incapacitated to stand on two legs. The other problem is IMC does not allow doctors from non teaching institutes to become faculty even though they are much better teachers than the government doctors. The selection process must allow these doctors who are interested to teach medical under-graduates after proper interview.

The new generation of students depend on Google search for expanding their knowledge. Medical students become violent if they fail in any examinations because they pay a hefty amount through back doors to get a seat in a private or government medical colleges. As such in India everyone is a doctor and willing to give free diagnosis and free advice. The art of medicine has been replaced with art of extracting money from patients through different modes of investigation. The most important part of patient care is communication, and history-taking, but the doctors have no time or patience nor do the patients disclose their habits and medical conditions properly. Majority of patients go for doctor shopping and experiment with different medicines and therapies. They go to hospitals quite late and die within a few hours. Due to government vote bank policies and opposition party’s instigations, patient’s relatives rough up the staff and doctors and keep the dead body on highway and ask for compensation. This has become a regular affair not only in medical college hospitals but also in corporate hospitals.

                 This type of risk has dissuaded many young students from pursuing medical education and become a doctor. Unlike Indian Administrative Officers, medical profession has lost its charm. They have neither security nor respect in the society. There are many committed and sincere doctors but they hardly get any recognition for their hard work in peripheral hospitals.

We must ask ourselves whether opening of the medical college in KBK districts would reduce the burden on other multispecialty hospitals. Most of the reputed hospitals are now situated at Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. It takes years for a hospital to earn a name but one day is sufficient to ruin it. The rush to corporate hospitals of Bhubaneswar would not come down but on the contrary more complicated cases would be referred putting more burdens on them from periphery.

Students have become aggressive and intolerant, not willing to read from books and become a good doctor. They are not interested in spending time in the wards or with the patients! A doctor’s job requires more exposure to patients and practical experience, not Google knowledge. Very few join this profession with a mind-set of ‘service to mankind’.

Wherefrom the authorities would get competent faculty? Teachers hardly read once they become Professors or Readers. Majority do private practice and are not interested in teaching. If teachers are bad then the student who passes out would be of an inferior standard. Many of the doctors of Odisha have not renewed their medical registration which is mandatory for them as per the Indian Medical Council (IMC) guidelines. Many fraud doctors are getting government job. To complicate the matter, government has a law where doctors passed out from alternative systems of medicine are bound to be employed in corporate and government hospitals. Once we dilute the system then quality would take a back seat. Quackery is rampant in society and difficult to know who is genuine and who is a fraud.

Medical colleges should not be born out of controversies which would lead to confusion and chaotic situation in the state. Before opening up the new medical colleges, we should prioritise accountability; who would maintain the sophisticated instruments? We must get committed faculty members, twenty-four hours uninterrupted water and electricity supply, easy communicable roads and safety to patients and medical staff members, or else like many industries which get closed down in our state, these new medical colleges would get derecognized by IMC.

 Dr. Sanjoy Kumar Satpathy

 Joint Director of Steel Authority of India