PG Times

The barbaric acid attack on a 30-year-old woman doctor in west Delhi was the handiwork of her "best friend" and doctor colleague, Ashok Yadav, who hired two minor boys for the job because the victim did not reciprocate his love, police said on Thursday. Yadav, along with an aide, has been arrested. The two minors who had thrown acid on the doctor's face as she was riding to work on Tuesday morning — an act caught on CCTV — have also been detained. The victim continues to be in hospital and doctors say there's little chance of sight being restored in her right eye. Police said the two were friends since medical school days. While Yadav did his MBBS from Russia, she studied in neighbouring Belarus. The victim considered him her "best friend" while the accused told police that he was in love with her and was incensed over her scheduled meeting with a prospective groom on Wednesday, a day after the attack. Ironically, Yadav was the first...

The Bhoiwada police on Thursday arrested a ward boy for molesting a 22-year-old female resident medical officer (RMO) of the KEM hospital after stopping the lift between 2nd and 3rd floor. The incident occurred around 12.30am in the hospital building when the victim on night duty took the lift to go to a medical neurology department on the third floor.  Accused Popat Bhoware (35) also tried to grab her mouth when she screamed in the lift. Bhoware is suspended from job and the hospital sexual harassment team is probing the matter.  The accused was caught by few patients' relatives, who stayed back at night on the second floor of the hospital building, when he jumped out of the lift on reaching third floor and tried to escape through the stairway.  Bhoiwada police senior inspector Sunil Tondwalkar confirmed the incident. Bhoware has been booked under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) sections for 341 (wrongful restraint) and 354 (outraging modesty).  K...

The government has ordered a cut of nearly 20 percent in its 2014/15 healthcare budget due to fiscal strains, putting at risk key disease control initiatives in a country whose public spending on health is already among the lowest in the world. Two health ministry officials told PG Times on Tuesday that more than 60 billion rupees, or $948 million, has been slashed from their budget allocation of around $5 billion for the financial year ending on March 31. Despite rapid economic growth over the past two decades, successive governments have kept a tight rein on healthcare expenditure. India spends about 1 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on public health, compared to 3 percent in China and 8.3 percent in the United States. But hopes were high that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was elected in May, would upgrade basic health infrastructure and make medical services more affordable for the poor. The United Nations estimates about one third of the world's 1.2 ...

Two men on a motorcycle threw acid on a woman doctor today in West Delhi's Rajouri Garden. The attack has been caught on CCTV cameras installed in the market. The woman in her statement to the police said that she did not know the men or suspect anyone. In fact she also said she is surprised that anyone would want to attack her. The police are analysing the footage to identify the accused. Half of the woman's face is burnt, and she is being treated at the premier All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). According to the police, the woman was on her way to the hospital where she works when the bike-borne men overtook her scooter near the market in Rajouri Garden, threw acid on her and fled. The woman lives in Hari Nagar in West Delhi. The woman shouted for help, but no one in the busy market place came to her rescue, according to the police who were later informed about the incident by a local resident. Aam Aadmi Party leader and former Delhi c...

Doling out freebies, cruise tickets, paid vacations and sponsorships to educational conferences and seminars for doctors by pharmaceutical companies has been banned from January. The government has woken up belatedly to curb unethical marketing practices of pharma companies by spelling out a uniform code of conduct for the industry. The code will be voluntary to start with, and kicks in from January 1. It will be reviewed after six months; if not implemented "effectively", the government will "consider"' making it mandatory, sources told TOI. At present, the pharma industry follows a "self-regulatory'' code that curbs unethical sales promotion and marketing expenses, bans personal gifts, and all-expenses paid junkets for doctors and their families, but there have been several instances where companies have violated the code, industry experts say. They say the code exists only on paper as companies try to influence prescriptions throu...

Exam on 18.01.2015 at Jaipur.

I knew my rapist; we had met through my friends in the medical college where I was doing my MBBS. I used to think of him as an acquaintance and had helped him in his studies. The day he raped me, it was I who invited him over to my paying-guest accommodation in South Delhi; he had been insisting that I prepare Bengali food for him. The thing is, I’m from a small town in Bihar. My father is a heart patient and I have a younger sister at a marriageable age. I thought, if I spoke out, my family and my sister’s prospects would be ruined. I told two of my close friends. “Nobody will trust you, this will be a black mark on you,” they all said. Then they told me if he wanted to marry me it would all be all right. I got confused. I thought if I just carried on with my studies and married him, it would all correct itself. For a year and a half, he kept stalling but I was so afraid that I let the relationship continue. He would come over using some excuse and rape me. He even raped ...

According to Shripad Yesso Naik, minister of state for health and family welfare, a total of 2373 undergraduate medical (MBBS) seats and 1184 postgraduate medical seats have been added in the country in 2014-15 as compared to the previous academic year. The number of medical colleges in the same period increased by 17 to 404 in the current academic year from 387 in the year 2013-14. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday, Naik said, “As per the provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and regulations framed thereunder, there is provision of annual inspections of all medical colleges with regard to the availability of the infrastructure required for conduct of various medical courses. In case of deficiencies in infrastructure found by the MCI and upon failure of the concerned institution to comply with the deficiencies within the specific period, the MCI makes recommendation to the government against renewal of seats/batch/course resulting in decrease in num...

As per Rural Health Statistics (RHS) Bulletin 2014, a total of 2225 (8.89%) Primary Health Centres (PHCs) in the country are functioning without doctor, 9825 (39.26%) PHCs without lab technician and 5739 (22.94%) PHCs without a pharmacist, Shripad Yesso Naik, minister of state for health and family welfare, informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. The minister further said that there is a shortfall of 36,346 Sub Health Centres (SHCs), 6700 Primary Health Centres (PHCs), and 2350 Community Health Centres (CHCs) in the country against the specified population norm. Public health being a state subject, the primary responsibility to provide improved access to healthcare services is that of the state governments. However, under the National Health Mission (NHM) financial support is provided to state and union territories governments to strengthen their healthcare systems to provide better and easy access to healthcare services, Naik added.

To deal with the acute shortage of specialist doctors in government hospitals, the state government has set the stage for the introduction of a year-long certificate course to upgrade MBBS doctors in various specialties. The decision recently announced by Health Minister Rajendra Rathore will churn out “specialist” doctors in different specialties including gynaecology and obstetrics, paediatrics, anaesthesia, orthopaedics, radiology, emergency medicine, and general surgery. The short cut formula is touted as an attempt to fill around 1,576 specialist positions long vacant in the state. The new course is expected to be introduced from December 10 in all six government-run medical colleges located at Jaipur, Kota, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Bikaner and Udaipur. However, the candidates willing to enrol in this course must have an experience of five years in government service and would be required to furnish a non-refundable bond of Rs 5 lakh. Doctors who have less than 10 years of servic...

The government is yet to notify the MCI proposal to make one year rural posting at a public health centre (PHC) mandatory for a MBBS student to apply for admission in a postgraduate course, according to Health Minister J P Nadda. The proposal of Medical Council of India (MCI) to amend the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, which makes one year rural posting at a Public Health Centre (PHC) mandatorily for a MBBS student to apply for admission in a PG course, is not yet notified, the minister said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Friday. In order to encourage the doctors working in remote and difficult areas, the MCI with the previous approval of the central government has amended the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000. The amendment provides 50 per cent reservation in postgraduate diploma courses for medical officers in the government service, who have served for at least three years in remote and difficult areas. It also provides incentive...

Spreading its base in the area of healthcare and medical education, Apollo Hospitals Group is building a 1000 bedded hospital and Rs 400 crore medical college in Batanagar’s Hiland Riverside near Kolkata. The medical college is expected to be fully functional by 2020, while the first phase of infrastructure to provide education for 100 medical students with 500 beds could be finished by 2017. The 14-acre land on which Apollo Institute of Medical Sciences and Research is being constructed, is being given free of cost by the state government since the project involves providing education too. Sharing Apollo’s medical education plans, Rupali Basu, CEO, Apollo Hospitals Group (eastern region) told PG Times, “The college would offer both medical and paramedical courses. We will have a regular MBBS course and 18 other courses at the undergraduate and postgraduate level besides a facility to carry research on various branches of medicine. By 2020, it would be able to offer superspec...

To draw the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi towards the spate of children’s deaths occurring after administration of Pentavalent vaccination, a group of  eminent doctors and academicians have shot a letter to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) requesting immediate intervention and total withdrawal of the vaccine in India. While presenting a grim picture about the sad state of affair related to the safety of pentavalent vaccination the letter states, “That babies die repeatedly as reaction from a vaccine is unacceptable. Already as per RTI reply there have been 76 deaths in India till August 2014 from Pentavalent adverse events following immunization (AEFI).” The letter further says “… since PMO has itself been involved in pronouncements of vaccine initiatives in the past few months. It is our responsibility to place these scientific facts before the PMO so that it is aware of the facts and so that urgent and appropriate action may be initiated by...

Only those who are domiciled in WB are allowed to appear in WBPGMAT 2015. All India quota students from other states who studied MBBS in medical colleges of WB will not be allowed to appear in WBPGMAT 2015. Candidates who studied MBBS from other states but domiciled in WB will be allowed to appear in WBPGMAT 2015.

Can a state government neglect repeated Supreme Court orders for over 13 years? Can a central government petition gather dust in SC, unheard even once for nearly four years? Such bizarre episodes are just the most recent ones in the never-ending saga of Bhopal gas disaster victims and their search for justice.  After 17 years, on July 25, 2001, SC ordered that I-cards be issued to gas victims, and permanent cards given to those who need lifelong medical aid. It ordered that medical records be computerized and booklets containing medical history be given to victims.This'd ensure proper treatment to all victims. The court repeated the order on May 2, 2006, July 17, 2007, November 15, 2007 and August 9, 2012.  A court-appointed monitoring committee made the same recommendations on June 10, 2005, Oct 31, 2005, July 12, 2006, Dec 20, 2006, Aug 7, 2007 and May 27, 2008. An advisory committee said the same. This should be sufficient pressure on the MP government ...