India will double MBBS seats, add 80,000 PG medical seats, 2500 new hospitals by 2024: Chairman MCI Board of Governors

FICCI, jointly with NITI Aayog, has been working on identifying innovative alternate methods of strengthening the number of specialized doctors in India that can be scaled-up, especially for high burden diseases and conditions.

In continuation to this, FICCI has partnered with Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) to launch the first of its kind Diabetes Certification Course for General Practitioners (GP), considering the WHO statistics of 69.2 million Indians suffering with diabetes in 2015 and not enough endocrinologists to deliver specialized care.

Commenting on the tie-up, Dr V K Paul said, “The ECHO model is unique in more than one ways, but what makes this program even more unique is the partnership with the industry through FICCI”.

He also highlighted that the government has made provisions to double the number of UG seats in medical education by 2024, but attaining the required number of specialist doctors is five times more difficult agenda. He further added that 80,000 PG seats will be added by 2024, with participation of private sector healthcare providers.

Appreciating the government’s focus on health, (Hony) Brig Dr Arvind Lal, Chairman, FICCI Health Services Committee & CMD, Dr Lal Path Labs said, “We all quote the British, US, Cuban, Thai and Indonesian models of healthcare, but with Ayushman Bharat, an Indian model will emerge.”

He added that empowering GPs on diabetes management can vastly improve patient outcomes as about 95 percent of the diabetics in India are being attended to by primary care doctors, GPs and family physicians.

The FICCI-ECHO Diabetes Certification Course for GPs is a 20-week, tele-mentoring programme that will be initially taken up as a pilot project to train 100 GPs on logical management of diabetic patients.

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