Even as the committee of experts working on the Bachelor of Rural Health Care Course (BRHCC) have recommended the Medical Council of India (MCI) to notify the course, the contentious issue is likely to get settled on Wednesday when the officials meet in the health ministry.
Envisaged over two years back, the major bone of contention had been is its regulation. During their meeting in August, the regulatory body had proposed the government to either create a new regulatory council for notifying the course or link it with the health science universities. The MCI had washed off its hands from notifying the course saying that the council could not do it as it was not a doctorate course.
“Amendments would be required in the Indian Medical Council Act in case the MCI does it.” However, sources say that MCI has been taking opinion from various corners on the issue as the health ministry is adamant and want the council only to regulate the course. “We have asked the MCI to regulate the course. The ball is in their court as they have to see how they can do it,” said a senior official in the health ministry.
As reported by this newspaper first, the name of the course has already been changed to B.Sc community health, and the new cadre be trained to provide only “ambulatory care” which means training to be imparted in OPD care and no in-patient health care.
The committee had also suggested that states should have a major say adopting the course with the newly proposed cadre trained in public health, vaccination, therapeutic medicine.
The duration of the course remains to be same as decided earlier, which was 3.5 years.
Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had earlier also accused the MCI for not clearing the unified syllabus for the rural MBBS course mooted by his ministry to tackle doctors scarcity in villages across the country.
The course, according to the health minister, would create professionals above the level of paramedics and below the level of MBBS doctors.