Gurcharan Das had an interesting op-ed where he praised the decision made by the government to privatise medical education. He believes that this will improve healthcare for Indians. This is based on two implicit hypotheses. 1. The reason healthcare in India is poor is because there's a shortage of doctors; and 2. Private medical education will be of better quality as compared to that provided by the government.
Both of these are riddled with holes. Creating more private medical college will not solve the problem of a shortage of doctors. Doctors aspire to become super specialists, which is why most of them want to become cardiologists and oncologists. While these high-profile doctors provide world-class services in the five-star hospitals where they work, this is not what the ordinary Indian citizen needs. Increasing the number of specialists by providing more postgraduate medical…
