Health and Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar on Friday inaugurated a professional certificate course in hospital management at the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru.
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Speaking at the event, the Minister said: “This is a dream come true for me. The new course will help in making the health delivery system holistic in both private and government hospitals.”
The course, started by IIMB in association with cardiologist Devi Shetty, will have ten subjects, including principles of financing, management, economics and strategy. The online course will, however, have one-day offline classes for those who are willing to attend. So far, 160 people have registered for the course.
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“From the time I became the Health Minister, there used to be one permanent agenda on each review meeting with the department – how to train our doctors in administration and management. This is because good or bad management will be the difference between life or death in the medical profession,” Mr. Sudhakar said.
“I wanted officials at the administrative level such as District Health Officers, Medical College Deans, District Surgeons, State Programme Officers and Joint Directors to be trained in management as people will get better quality healthcare,” he asserted.
Pointing out that most of these health officers are experts in their fields, the Minister said: “They may not know the principles of management thereby reducing the efficiency of functioning and not optimally utilising the resources. This new course will not just be useful to Karnataka but also our entire country.”
In a tweet, the Minister said, “I recall the first time I spoke with IIM Director @rishikesha and Dr Devi Shetty about plugging the managerial skill gaps amongst doctors and healthcare workers to ensure that hospitals, especially in the public sector, are run professionally and efficiently.”