The service of postgraduate medicos in government and private medical colleges in the State will be extended to rural areas from March 1, according to a statement issued by the office of the Health Minister here on Monday.
Second-year postgraduate medicos will be posted to taluk, district, and general hospitals under the district residency programme, which is part of their training according to the stipulations of the National Medical Commission.
The service of postgraduate doctors in the specialty wings of hospitals in the Health Service from taluk hospital upwards will benefit the patients coming to these hospitals. The government is also taking steps to make medical colleges centres of excellence and to implement the referral and back referral systems in the MCHs, the statement said.
The decision to implement the district residency programme effectively was taken at a meeting in December last. The Director of Medical Education was made the State nodal officer and the Director of Health Services the programme coordinator and C. Raveendran as the DME coordinator for the smooth implementation. The Directorate of Medical Education also brought out the guidelines for implementing the residency programme.
A total of 1,382 postgraduate medical students, including 854 from the nine government medical colleges and the RCC, 430 from the 19 private medical colleges, and 98 from the Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences, Ernakulam, are being deployed in government hospitals .
They will serve as four groups, with each group serving for a period of three months each in 78 government hospitals from taluk hospital upwards, which have 100 beds or more. As far as possible, postgraduate doctors are being posted in the same districts as their medical colleges.
The hospitals they are being posted include the taluk headquarters hospital, district and general hospitals, mental health centres, women and children hospitals, TB Centre and the State Public Health Laboratory.
The district residency is an opportunity for postgraduate students to understand the public health system and for increased interaction with the community.
