How Medical Education Can Help Marshal The Future Developments In Healthcare

The revolutionary changes occurring in the healthcare sector in India, combined with the emergence of Covid and a surging burden of other diseases, have together brought to the forefront the need for a resilient healthcare system. The latest technological advancements and the rising digital penetration in healthcare coupled with the pouring demand of medical facilities from the domestic market as well as the increasing medical tourism presents a gigantic challenge for the healthcare sector of India.

And to build a vigorous healthcare system, a resolute yet adaptable workforce of qualified medical professionals is indispensable to marshal the developments. Therefore the importance of having a rich education system cannot be overlooked.

One of the many challenges that the healthcare sector faces is the over burdening of Indian medical practitioners. According to the inputs from a stock taking exercise by the 15th Finance Commission in 2021, in India there is one doctor for 1511 patients against the WHO norm of 1 doctor for 1000 patients. And also one nurse for 670 patients which is double the WHO recommendation of 1 nurse for 300 patients.

Although the Indian government has focussed on expanding the healthcare workforce over the last 2-3 years by setting up new colleges and increasing the medical seats in the existing colleges, the present education system is still riddled with many challenges and has a big leap to embark upon to address the upcoming developments in the sector.

“Accessibility of quality medical education is a big challenge, every year many medicine aspirants do not get admission in the medical institutions due to inadequate number of seats, another challenge is the affordability barring the public medical colleges, the medical education in private colleges is highly expensive leading to extensive out of pocket expenditure. In the area of quality education, focus on hands-on experience is way less in colleges compared to the developed nations leaving doctors Ill-equipped to handle community health challenges and also the faculties of the medical colleges is quite stretched,” said Dr Manish Mattoo, CEO, Apollo Hospitals, Bangalore.

According to the NMC (National Medical Commission) there are about 612 MBBS colleges in India with close to 92000 UG seats for the students which they can avail after qualifying the competitive NEET exam, but according to several reports the seats for PG degrees in India is only half the UG seats, which compels many students to pursue their higher studies in foreign countries. Overall the medical seats in the country fall short of the demand and are not affordable to many which leads to 20000-25000 students travelling abroad every year to pursue their study of medicine.

“One of the reasons for the brain drain of doctors is the quality of opportunities our doctors get in developed countries. And in the institutes abroad, the focus on research work is very high compared to India which attracts a lot of young talent. Also at the entry level, there is a need for us to provide better working opportunities including better salaries to our doctors in India,” stated Kamlesh Vyas, Partner Deloitte India.

Digital and technological disruption has deeply penetrated across the healthcare sector, medical authorities and faculties need to ensure that the medical professionals are tech savvy and are continuously upgraded with latest developments in the healthcare landscape to deliver the best promotive and preventive care.

Dr Manish explained that unlike the west, in India we don't have collaborations and partnerships between medical colleges, healthcare industry and private hospitals. He says the innovation today is happening at the intersection of the healthcare industry and corporate hospitals, “so unless there is a structured mechanism between these stakeholders the medical students will be deprived of the exposure. Medical institutes need to partner with the corporate hospitals and the private healthcare industry which is heavily investing in the latest technologies, so that the students can be well versed with the advancements,” he added.

Way Ahead

Mr Vyas informs the countries medical education has a big scope of improvement to be future ready and can improve by reviewing the curriculum, integrating practical experience, reducing student workload and therefore burnout and dropout, faculty development, technology enablement, improving educational aids and learning facilities. He says these improvements will enable our medical education to move away from outdated content and pedagogy and rote based learning and help our students to get quality education.

“In our country we need 2-3 lakhs doctors passing out every year but we are only managing close to 60000, we need to think about the volume and make it more affordable and accessible. And to address this, policy making needs to take the lead starting with democratisation of medical education which should include an active partnership from multiple stakeholders, greater research funding to colleges, and a transparent policy making and capping of the medical fees by the government,” enumerated Dr Manish.

In order to address the challenges and systemic issues of medical education in India, the medical institutes, the healthcare industry and the government authorities have to work in tandem to prepare a technologically advanced, digitally immersed and a less burdened medical workforce which is ready for developments of the coming future.