Sorry junior doctor. You need to swallow a bitter pill. A year-long rural service is inescapable. Pack up and move to the destined village, however distant or remote it may be
.None assures you whether Primary Health Centre (PHC) does exist. If you find one such look- alike hospital, don’t be panic. Even if you don’t find at least one first aid kit within your reach, don’t get astonished. This pretext has been enough for you to say no to practice in villages.
But the poor villagers direly need doctors, more than well equipped hospitals. You may have dreamt of enhancing your professional acumen in World-class Medical Colleges in US or Europe. But regular ailments like fever or diarrhoea turn fatal and take away the lives of rural folks.
Though World Health Organisation (WHO) insists every nation should see the doctor-patient ratio at 1:1000 at least, India still keeps it at 1:2000. Do you contribute further to this shortage and make rural India permanently sick?
Reach the village not by force but with mission.
Satish Chandar
(An appeal to striking junior doctors in Telangana Sate)