KOCHI: Governor P Sathasivam on Saturday said the rural health centres in Kerala are plagued by a serious shortage of doctors. He was addressing the convocation ceremony of the MBBS graduates of the 2012 batch at the Ernakulam Government Medical College here.
Sathasivam said Kerala is an endless conveyor belt of quality doctors and nurses who are the life and soul of the healthcare sector in several developing countries. The shortage of doctors witnessed in the rural health centres is mainly due to the medical professionals’ refusal to serve in such areas, he said.
“The working atmosphere in government hospitals may not always be to our liking, but let us not forget those hospitals are the only hope to the majority of our people. And, such hospitals provide the platform for translating your acquired knowledge into practice. The large number of ordinary patients whom you serve in such places will be silently and indirectly fine-tuning your skills as a doctor,” he said.
He said projects like the Aardram Mission will succeed if young professionals show the willingness to work in situations which may initially look adverse, but will prove rewarding later. “For a young medical practitioner, the profession should be an opportunity to learn the pulse of society and thereby develop a larger social vision. If you develop this vision, you will automatically develop the
attitude to respond to the complaints and angry reactions of patients with better understanding,” he said.
The Governor also touched upon the ethical issues as modern science and medicine have made rapid strides.“The range of ethical issues has also increased so much every technological leap tends to have an ethical issue hidden behind it. I, therefore, hope a strict adherence to ethical practices will be your top priority. You are aware the Medical Council of India [MCI] Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002 sets the professional standards for medical practice. I request the medical to follow the standards prescribed in the Regulations,” he said.
Justice Sathasivam said a doctor should have an open mind, with a positive disposition to other streams of science and medicine. “I will also request the young graduates here to educate society with scientific and factual medical information so people are not misled by quackery. We had seen this bad trend during our struggle against Nipah recently,” he said. The Governor also hailed the yeomen service rendered by the EMC’s disaster response team during the Nipah outbreak in Kozhikode.