Mysuru Medical College and Research Institute (MMCRI) is one among the two medical institutions in the State selected by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to launch a bridge course for professionals in nursing, ayurveda, paramedical and other clinical backgrounds to develop them as ‘mid-level service providers’ or ‘community health officers’.
The one-year course will be introduced from this academic year. The course, with an intake of 40 students, will be inaugurated on Monday under the National Health Mission. The students for the inaugural course have been selected based on merit. The course certificate in community health will be awarded by the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).
Other institutes
B. Krishnamurthy, MMCRI Director and Dean, told The Hindu that the Centre had introduced the course on a pilot basis with Mysuru and Lingasugur as the nodal centres in the State. The course may be extended to other institutes subsequently based on the success of the course. The bridge course model – community healthcare – had been introduced in Malaysia and had helped to address the needs of basic healthcare there, he explained.
Dr. Krishnamurthy said the candidates will be posted at sub-centres as mid-level healthcare service providers to provide basic healthcare. “These service providers cannot be alternatives to doctors. But they will be discharging the role as basic healthcare providers obtaining skills for the tasks in the course,” he explained.
Better services
One of the main reasons for introducing the course was to address the issue of shortage of doctors and ensure continuous public healthcare services besides implementing government healthcare programmes. “This is first time such a course had been introduced to overcome the shortage of trained healthcare professionals in rural areas,” Dr. Krishnamurthy said. However, he added that people should not depend on big hospitals (barring for advanced care) for basic healthcare when such services were available in their towns and villages.
The purpose of developing mid-level healthcare professionals was to bring public health facilities closer to places where people live. Efforts are on to establish an equally competent public healthcare system in rural areas to address their needs, he explained.
Six lakh doctors
As per the WHO report, India needs about six lakh doctors at the rate of one doctor for 1,000 people, he said.
The curriculum for the bridge course will be based on B.Sc. (Community Health) with theory and practical classes for the candidates at the MMCRI Study Centre under IGNOU.
