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CHRISTIAN HEALTH WORKERS OFFER CAUTIOUS WELCOME TO FEDERAL HEALTH POLICY

Updated: May 22, 2002 05:00 PM GMT
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Christian health workers in India have welcomed with reservations a federal health policy catering to poor villagers.

The federal health ministry released for the first time since 1983 a comprehensive health policy stressing "increased investment" in rural health care and compulsory service for doctors in village areas.

Released May 4, the new policy also envisages privatization of some facilities to revive India´s network of primary health centers. It also includes a scheme whereby patients at district and higher levels subsidize rural health care.

Welcoming the policy, Father Alex Vadakkumthala, secretary of the Commission for Health of the Catholic Bishops´ Conference of India, said "a change was needed as the rural sector was being badly treated for a long, long time."

C.P. Thakur, federal health minister, told media May 4 that the new policy was needed because "the health care scene has undergone drastic changes since the last policy was adopted in 1983."

The policy also proposes to review the medical college syllabi "to empower our doctors with the ability to handle modern medical threats and rural needs," Thakur said. He added that the policy would make it mandatory for new doctors to do a "couple of years" service at village health centers.

The Catholic Church-run St. John´s Medical College in Bangalore is "the pioneer in that respect," said its director Carmelite Father Thomas Kalam.

The Carmelite of Mary Immaculate priest said St. John´s Medical College and the Protestant-run Christian Medical College in Tamil Nadu "always insisted that fresh graduates work for two years in the villages before they take up other assignments."

Father Kalam said the new federal policy also justifies St. John´s approach for "community health through empowerment of people" rather than "a mere disease-curing attitude."

He said the federal policy would help villages. However, he added that he was "skeptical about the success of the new government policy, unless medical colleges and the government take tough measures."

Father Vadakkumthala said the Catholic Church in India runs 6,000 health care centers including 676 hospitals.

He said health care has "deteriorated from a service sector to business and most doctors are concentrating in the cities where returns are higher."

Vijay Arul Das, general secretary of the Protestant Christian Medical Association of India, told UCA News May 18 that the policy to make rural service compulsory for all doctors was "announced in the past too, but was never implemented."

If the government "shows the will to implement the policy," it could get at least 30 percent more doctors to work in the villages, said Das, who heads the association of over 350 institutions and some 5,000 volunteers.

Father Sebastian Ouseparambil, director of the Catholic Hospital Association of India, said he has doubts about the implementation of the new policy.

According to him, the new policy makes "no radical moves" to include the parallel medical systems of ancient India and the herbal medicine knowledge of the villagers and tribals.

Since Indian independence in 1947 the nation´s health policy was molded on the colonial heritage of the British, which meant "big institutions and huge structures, which have become unaffordable now," he said.

"We are not making any radical policy changes," said the priest, who heads the voluntary body of Catholic hospitals. He said he was "skeptical about this policy too because the government altogether moves along a wrong route."

However, Das and Father Vadakkumthala welcomed the government´s move to revise the curriculum.

The Catholic official said St. John´s helps its students "respect the spiritual aspect of a person while treating them." He said it is a "deeply Indian concept to see God in human beings."

Das said the Protestant medical college in Tamil Nadu is trying a new idea in which rural health workers share experiences with medical students.

END

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