The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the Union Health Secretary to file a detailed affidavit about launching of a new short-term medical course for primary health care service in rural areas.
A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice Madan B. Lokur and Justice Mukta Gupta asked the Health Secretary to inform it whether it had accepted the recommendations of the tasks force about launching the course.
It also asked the Secretary to provide details about the length of the course, its implementation and regulation.
The Bench gave the direction on a public interest litigation seeking directions to the Centre and the Medical Council of India to launch a short-term medical course to train primary health workers to cater to the medical needs of the rural population.
The other plea of the petitioner, Meenakshi Gautam, a public health expert, is that the Government should remove the legal bar prohibiting medical practice without having an MBBS degree as it is unconstitutional as a vast majority of people are deprived of the medical care due to that.
She further urged the Court to direct the Government to implement the recommendation of a task force constituted by it under the National Rural Health Mission to launch a three-year short-term course to create a cadre of doctors to take care of primary health service in the rural areas.
