Medical Education in India: Introspection, Challenges and Reforms – A vision

Abstract

There has always been question mark on the Medical Education and health care in India right from the time of British India. Ever since its inception in 1858 the General Medical Council (GMC) of Great Britain, the regulatory authority and the British Government intentionally worked with double standards keeping the allopathic education and health care in the countries ruled by them including India at a low profile than in Britain so as to maintain a quest to go to UK for better knowledge and skills in medicine. To rectify Bhore and Mudaliar Committees were constituted in 1943 and 1959 respectively to survey and recommend development and planning for up gradation of medical education and health care in India.The MCI inherited substandard infrastructure form GMC and kept playing the same role. It failed to realise that before British came, many systems of medicine existed in India like, Ayurvedic, Homoeopathic, Unani, Siddha, Yoga, Pranic healing etc. which English people ignored and the MCI needed to address them. They never thought to integrate allopathy with other systems of medical care for holistic approach. The concept of Integrated Medicine could never evolve.On account of wrong policies and vested interest wrong decisions were taken one after the other. The standards of medical education and health care kept deteriorating with passing time. Consequently Indian Medical degrees got derecognised in the developed countries. The recommendations of Bhore and Mudaliar Committees did not do any good. Right from yesteryears till date most of the doctors in India from every sphere caused self-inflicted life threatening injury to the MCI and the medical profession as a whole. The National Medical Commission is about to replace MCI very shortly. This article highlights some of the major evils in the present system with suggested reforms keeping in mind the Golden Philosophy which could be embodied in the new system for better results.