Miss Banerjee, while speaking at a meeting with senior officials, including chief secretary HK Dwivedi, home secretary BP Gopalika and other bureaucrats at the state secretariat Nabanna
Mamata Banerjee Bengal Chief Minister (file photo)
With an increase in the number of medical colleges, super specialist hospitals and indoor beds, chief minister Miss Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio, proposed to introduce diploma medical courses for primary healthcare facilities across the state.
Miss Banerjee, while speaking at a meeting with senior officials, including chief secretary HK Dwivedi, home secretary BP Gopalika and other bureaucrats at the state secretariat Nabanna, on Thursday, proposed to introduce a three-year diploma medical course for young candidates.
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The chief has asked NS Nigam, principal secretary in-charge of the health department, to form a committee to explore the proposal. She reportedly told the officials: “Number of indoor beds has been increasing with setting up of more and more hospitals like medical colleges in the state.
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We don’t have an adequate number of doctors and nurses though more hospitals are coming up. Number of patients is increasing with setting up of new hospitals. Try to explore how to create diploma medical courses like diploma engineers. Candidates after completing the proposed course could be sent to primary healthcare units in rural Bengal.”
“It takes five years to become a MBBS doctor. I think diploma-holding doctors can be parallel MBBS graduates. We will get positive results if they are engaged in rural healthcare,” she said in the meeting.
She also proposed to produce junior nurses to meet up the shortfall of nurses in government medical colleges and hospitals, district, subdivisional, state general, block and rural hospitals.
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