'Diploma course for doctors': Mamata Banerjee pitches solution for shortage of medical experts  

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday proposed a diploma course for doctors to tackle the shortage of doctors at hospitals. She asked health secretary NS Nigam to look into the same. Banerjee was speaking at the review meeting of ‘Utkarsh Bangla’.

"You (Nigam) please find out whether we can start a diploma course for doctors, just like we have for engineers. Several boys and girls will get the opportunity to enroll for the medical course”, Banerjee was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.

She added that a regular MBBS course takes five years to complete and asserted that a diploma course would address the shortage of doctors in the state. The proposed diploma course, as per sources within the West Bengal health department, could be of three years.

The chief minister, who also has the health portfolio, said: “We get doctors after a training period of five years which is a long time. In all these years, they have to study hard and sit for examinations. Besides, we utilise them as junior doctors across different hospitals while they are still studying”.

She further said these doctors could be employed at primary healthcare units. Banerjee asked the health secretary to form a four-member committee to look into her proposal and that senior doctors and professors could be engaged to train those enrolling for the diploma course.

She also asked the health secretary if a law could be framed to elevate senior nurses as “semi-doctors” for training purposes.

Meanwhile, West Bengal Doctors Forum (WBDF) founder-secretary Dr Koushik Sarkar said the state government should rethink this proposal scientifically.

Dr Sarkar noted: “The proposal of a three-year diploma course is not all scientific. I will request the state government to think scientifically”. He further said several doctors graduate from government as well as private colleges in West Bengal every year and a proper recruitment process will help in addressing the shortfall of doctors.

(With agency inputs)

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