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BUSINESS
Strategy to check brain drain need of the hour
By
Devajit Mahanta
The term brain drain designates the international transfer of
resources in the form of human capital, that is, the migration of
relatively educated individuals from developing to developed countries. The
qualities of Indian doctors are “the best in the world”. That is why many
developed countries fly to India
for hiring healthcare personnel. According to the Indian Planning
Commission report, 2008, the number of Indian medical graduates practicing
in the USA
increased from 30,000 in 1970 to 1,50,000 in 2007. As the Indian doctors
immigrated to the USA,
the richest country in the world saved 26 billion dollars, which would have
been spent in training these physicians. India
by subsidising the health costs of the rich countries like USA and the UK , thus loses precious
resources both in capital and human terms. India
holds the top position when it comes to its physicians migrating to
developed countries like USA
and the UK.
In other categories of healthcare professionals like radiologists,
laboratory technicians, dental hygienists, physiotherapists and medical
rehabilitation workers, India
has also emerged as one of the top suppliers.
According to the report, India
faces an acute shortage of six lakh doctors, 10 lakh nurses and two lakh
dental surgeons. For every 10,000 Indians there is one doctor. Another kind
of brain drain is the movement of doctors to urban areas. They are often
reluctant to move back to their native places after qualifying. So the poor
villagers remain inaccessible whether a specialist is working in a big
hospital in the city or a huge hospital in USA
or UK.
The question therefore arises: “Should the Indian Government continue to
subsidise medical education if the poor villagers remains inaccessible and
highly educated doctors continue to migrate to developed countries?” Most
of the skilled Indian doctors, if they want to come back after their stay
abroad, find that the professional fees and salaries they earn do not meet
their expectations.
According to immigration rules in the USA,
a foreign doctor before seeking employment in the USA even after successfully completing
medical schooling in the USA,
or doing an internship or residency at an American hospital should have
practiced at least two years outside the USA.
The US Federal Government has designated 2,100 areas under which, if any
foreign doctor is ready to serve the underprivileged section of the
American society, then two years of outside the US service before working is
lifted. As a result, the brain drain of Indian doctors to the USA
continues, whose medical skills are utilised for happily serving the
American underclass where even American doctors would not want to work.
Also, on February 2008, the British Medical Association imposed a ban on
all foreign doctors from outside the European Union for applying for
postgraduate training posts in Britain in a bid to prevent
thousands of British medics from facing unemployment.
India,
which is otherwise a country with the world’s third-highest HIV caseload,
the Government has to concentrate on the following policy options for
stopping the flight of these precious human capital. firstly, it has to
re-balance the system and offer more career options to physicians to remain
in India,
increase investment and modernise initiatives. Secondly, it has to build a
professional environment in medicine that emphasises on high quality
practices and discourages profiteering would do a great deal to improve
medical care. Thirdly, it has to re-engineer a physicians primary care role
for India
and investing in it would be important for both the public and private
sectors. Fourthly, a moratorium on new medical colleges to improve future
practice standards is needed.
Doctors who have emigrated for whatever reason are recoverable and can play
a part in developing opportunities at home. Today’s health policy-makers
were yesterday’s students. By understanding the situation now, we can shape
the future. The health system must be financially, technologically and
politically supported to retain skilled personnel.
Readers can send their feedback at devajitmahanta@gmail.com
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