At the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the Medical Council of India (MCI) on Sunday, President Pratibha Patil said that the medical interns should be sent to villages for their training.

She said that this would make them receptive to the requirements in the country’s rustic regions, and hopefully encourage them to work there.

In her speech, Ms. Patil said, “A very important aspect of medical education is the internship phase. I have always emphasised on sending medical interns to our villages as part of their training.”

“This would make them aware of the needs in rural areas and hopefully motivate them to work there, once they see the need for their services in those areas,” she added.

She said, “The medical profession is a noble profession. The satisfaction of seeing a patient improving far outweighs the value of money that can be earned.”

She also said that India needs more physicians and medical institutions to make healthcare facilities available at reasonably prices.

While giving out information in this regard, Patil said that around 31,000 medical graduates pass out of 271 medical colleges in India every year.

She further mentioned that as per Planning Commission estimations, the country is short of 6 lakh doctors and 10 lakh nurses.

“This has led to a doctor to patient ratio of about one is to ten thousand. Such low ratios also do not make medical care affordable,” Patil said.

Patil said that the MCI can think of proactively guiding such students who are considering pursuing medical studies abroad by opening special windows where they can be informed on matters like equivalence of foreign degrees.

She asked the MCI to study the viablility of introducing in the medical curricula a course on traditional the Indian medicines.