Once again the health minister Dr. Ramadoss and AIIMS outgoing director washed their dirty linen in public. The last two and half years has seen frequent disputes between these two and yet this drama is not completely over, ball in perhaps now in the court of judiciary. But, in India, at last no one can beat these politicians and especially to those who are in power!! So, minister finally succeeded to get rid of Dr. Venugopal. With the latest amendment in the AIIMS act minister ensured the retirement age of director as 65 years and therefore, Dr. Venugopal had to go.
Dr. Ramadoss is well known for creating the buzz all around with his steps and decisions . Though, on detail and in depth analysis of most of the measures taken by him will suggest that they were succeeded in creating the hype and hoopla but failed miserably to achieve the desired goal. Starting with the ban on smoking in movies, he made his presence felt across the country. Why didn't he realized that movies can be blamed up to an extent for promoting cigarettes, but what about the desi stuffs like beedi and other form of tambakoo. These desi stuffs are popular in the areas and among the masses who hardly follow any movie trend. If statistics are to be believed then these are the desi stuffs which are claiming more lives than the branded cigarettes. Coming to the point of promotion of cigarettes through movie, why not minister is taking in account the people who are smoking has got brain of their own and they can read the warning written on the cigarettes packs. Moreover these smokers are educated and very much aware of harmful effects of cigarettes. So, just by banning smoking in movies nothing can be achieved except the cheap publicity stunt for the minister. If minister is really worried about smoking related diseases he should first ensure the ways to curb the beedi and other desi stuffs among the rural and uneducated citizens.
Recently, minister played another card and this time he was in no mood to lose the battle. He has played his ace this time and therefore wants to make maximum out of this. He made the provision of an additional year of rural internship for medical students through out the country. By doing this he thinks he can address the problem of poor health services in rural India. May be minister have succeeded in scaling his popularity to another highest level but, this is no way going to improve the poor condition of rural health services. Probably this step will be more helpful to minister and his party and alliance in the coming parliamentary elections(which may come anytime..all depends on Mr. Karat..whether he can bite or can just bark??).
This step of minister raised an endless debate all around. People are still finding its usefulness and on the other side there are people who are in no mood to accept such dictatorial decisions. Why these politicians always try to divert the focus of people from the real problem? Is this forced one year rural posting the solution to improve poor rural health condition or the solution lies somewhere else?
The fundamental problem is not the disparity in the number of doctors available per 100,000 citizen in urban and rural India. If we consider the total number of registered medical practitioners(including some of retired and emigrated) in India, it comes out around 0.6 million. This means on an average there are 50 doctors per 100,000 of population and some statistics suggest that this figure is about 150-200 per 100,000 of population in case of urban India. So, overall availability of doctors is abysmally low as compared to US and European countries (almost 1/6th). Even figure of the urban India is not very impressive. It is also lower than the national average of western countries. So, where is the question of forcing the doctors to go to rural areas? The basic problem is that we have lesser number of medical colleges to cater to the requirement of our country and government needs to address this problem immediately. If government is not in a position to fund more medical colleges then it should ask for private money in this sector. But, why instead of looking for a practical solution to address the problem of poor rural health system minister was busy in playing political game??
Currently India produces about twenty thousands medical graduates per year and simply looking at our present requirements this figure should be at hundred thousands per annum. So, minister if you are really worried about the health of rural citizen then just go and put all your effort in creating more and more medical colleges. Please stop this political game. This time minister didn't spared even media. He went on saying that media is dragging him in controversies because he belongs to MBC(most backward caste). Enough...minister rural-urban, caste...you used every weapon this time.Please..please..stop it.
A simple question to minister--India stands at 171th position among 175 countries in the term of public health expenditure to GDP ratio. So, minister you are the best person to answer this question. Also, can you tell with this condition of public health expenditure how can you improve the poor health facilities of rural India where poor people are mostly dependent on public health services.
Leave these political stunts and try to improve the rural health services honestly!!!
Dr. Ramadoss is well known for creating the buzz all around with his steps and decisions . Though, on detail and in depth analysis of most of the measures taken by him will suggest that they were succeeded in creating the hype and hoopla but failed miserably to achieve the desired goal. Starting with the ban on smoking in movies, he made his presence felt across the country. Why didn't he realized that movies can be blamed up to an extent for promoting cigarettes, but what about the desi stuffs like beedi and other form of tambakoo. These desi stuffs are popular in the areas and among the masses who hardly follow any movie trend. If statistics are to be believed then these are the desi stuffs which are claiming more lives than the branded cigarettes. Coming to the point of promotion of cigarettes through movie, why not minister is taking in account the people who are smoking has got brain of their own and they can read the warning written on the cigarettes packs. Moreover these smokers are educated and very much aware of harmful effects of cigarettes. So, just by banning smoking in movies nothing can be achieved except the cheap publicity stunt for the minister. If minister is really worried about smoking related diseases he should first ensure the ways to curb the beedi and other desi stuffs among the rural and uneducated citizens.
Recently, minister played another card and this time he was in no mood to lose the battle. He has played his ace this time and therefore wants to make maximum out of this. He made the provision of an additional year of rural internship for medical students through out the country. By doing this he thinks he can address the problem of poor health services in rural India. May be minister have succeeded in scaling his popularity to another highest level but, this is no way going to improve the poor condition of rural health services. Probably this step will be more helpful to minister and his party and alliance in the coming parliamentary elections(which may come anytime..all depends on Mr. Karat..whether he can bite or can just bark??).
This step of minister raised an endless debate all around. People are still finding its usefulness and on the other side there are people who are in no mood to accept such dictatorial decisions. Why these politicians always try to divert the focus of people from the real problem? Is this forced one year rural posting the solution to improve poor rural health condition or the solution lies somewhere else?
The fundamental problem is not the disparity in the number of doctors available per 100,000 citizen in urban and rural India. If we consider the total number of registered medical practitioners(including some of retired and emigrated) in India, it comes out around 0.6 million. This means on an average there are 50 doctors per 100,000 of population and some statistics suggest that this figure is about 150-200 per 100,000 of population in case of urban India. So, overall availability of doctors is abysmally low as compared to US and European countries (almost 1/6th). Even figure of the urban India is not very impressive. It is also lower than the national average of western countries. So, where is the question of forcing the doctors to go to rural areas? The basic problem is that we have lesser number of medical colleges to cater to the requirement of our country and government needs to address this problem immediately. If government is not in a position to fund more medical colleges then it should ask for private money in this sector. But, why instead of looking for a practical solution to address the problem of poor rural health system minister was busy in playing political game??
Currently India produces about twenty thousands medical graduates per year and simply looking at our present requirements this figure should be at hundred thousands per annum. So, minister if you are really worried about the health of rural citizen then just go and put all your effort in creating more and more medical colleges. Please stop this political game. This time minister didn't spared even media. He went on saying that media is dragging him in controversies because he belongs to MBC(most backward caste). Enough...minister rural-urban, caste...you used every weapon this time.Please..please..stop it.
A simple question to minister--India stands at 171th position among 175 countries in the term of public health expenditure to GDP ratio. So, minister you are the best person to answer this question. Also, can you tell with this condition of public health expenditure how can you improve the poor health facilities of rural India where poor people are mostly dependent on public health services.
Leave these political stunts and try to improve the rural health services honestly!!!

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