Rural Service Bill gets President’s assent

June,3,2015: President inked the Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course Bill, 2012, on May 29.

There is a reason for rural populace in the state to rejoice. All problems related to shortage of doctors in Government Hospitals and Primary Health Centres will be solved with the President’s assent for the much awaited Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course Bill, 2012.

This will help in addressing all the problems related to shortages of doctors in government hospitals and primary health centres.

Disclosing this to presspersons here on Wednesday, Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash R. Patil said that, President inked the Bill on May 29 and the provisions of the Bill would come in to force with immediate effect.

The ‘Karnataka Compulsory Service Training by Candidates Completed Medical Course Bill 2012’ makes one-year rural service mandatory for MBBS and postgraduate doctors in the State to get their degrees.

Those who do not serve in rural areas will have to pay a heavy penalty to the Government.

Once the Act is enforced, it would offset the huge shortfall of doctors in the rural areas. In fact, we would have access to more fresh graduates to work in the rural areas. These candidates will also receive the required exposure to varied  treatment protocols.  The Act would be applicable to all students both government and private medical colleges.

According to Dr Devi Prasad  Shetty, founder and chairman,  Narayana Health, with a large patient population and vast underdeveloped areas, there was immense scope for healthcare providers to improve infrastructure. But the big issue was the  paucity of doctors to serve in many of the areas.

On the vacancies of the posts of doctors in Karnataka, he said the Government wants to recruit around 350 MBBS graduates and 1,400 postgraduate doctors. These recruitments will be done on a contract basis. The MBBS doctors will be offered a salary of around Rs. 30,000 a month. The salary of postgraduate doctors will start from Rs. 65,000 a month.