Rural Health Practitioner

In our country doctor patient ratio is significantly small. However, in this regard urban people are much better placed than their rural counter part. Health services at rural arrears are abjectly poor. There’re fewer health centers compared to vast rural population. What’s more, these centers too chronically suffer from dearth of medical practitioners, medicines and other medical facilities. Qualified doctors, even fresher, normally prefer to practice in urban medical centers than in rural ones. To address this problem West Bengal govt’s decided to launch a 3-yr health care diploma course for catering health services to rural arrears. Those who will successfully complete this course will be called Rural Health Practitioners and not ‘doctors’. However, this move has evoked adverse reactions in medical community . Opinion may differ but if the proposed course is properly conducted and the participants well trained, it’s very likely that the move will go a long way in improving the rural health care service. It’s no denying the fact, were the health care units provided with adequate number of qualified doctors, much better medical service could be made available in villages. As it can not be done in reality, the proposed move will be none too bad an alternative. Apart from providing health practitioners, the health centers should be equipped with proper medical facilities also.