Rural service will be made mandatory for doctors
PTI - Bangalore

Union Minister for Health Dr C P Thakur said here recently that the government would bring in a legislation either in the coming parliament session or the next, to make rural service mandatory for doctors.

“Doctors should resign and go if they cannot work in rural areas,” Thakur told reporters here, stressing that the problem was ‘acute’ in most parts of the country, except the South. “They (doctors) can practice in private. They cannot continue to be in government service and refuse to work in rural areas,” Thakur said, adding the names of doctors unwilling to work in rural public health centres would be ‘scratched’.

Earlier in his address at the convocation of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Thakur said government would announce a revised medical code of ethics which would include making rural service mandatory. He also said government would allocate Rs 100 crore to deal with mental health and epilepsy.