The cost of producing a doctor in India

This report says that over the last three years, the tuition fees paid by an aspiring doctor in India have almost tripled.

Across India, while fees in private unaided medical colleges are still way below Rs 3 lakh, the Nagpur-based NKP Salve institute charges Rs 4.75 lakh, the highest in the country. Karnataka may have the largest pool of medical seats in India but Maharashtra by far charges the highest fees.

The annual cost of an MBBS course in a private college in Maharashtra ranges from Rs 4.75 lakh at NKP Salve to Rs 1.68 lakh at ACPM, Dhule, with the bulk of the colleges — most of them run by politicians — charging in the range of Rs 2.5-3 lakh. The annual fees of the only private college within Mumbai, K.J. Somaiya,went up from Rs 1.89 lakh to a whopping Rs 3.72 lakh between 2003 and 2006.

The main reason for this state of affairs is that the government committee responsible for regulating fees in the state has been approving hikes proposed by the managements of these colleges every year. The question that we need to ask is, when students from these colleges finally reach society what will prevent them from extracting their pound of flesh from their patients. Whither the spirit of service in their minds when they have themselves been victim of these money-minting schemes.

Welcome to the Med-Ed Blog!

Medical education has traditionally been one of the most neglected areas in medicine. Thankfully, today things are changing and awareness of its importance is increasing. Teaching technology has acquired scientific dimensions. The profession of being a medical educator has gained respectability and credibility. But there is still a long way to go.

Through the medium of this blog, let us join hands to speak the common language of walking together– in a common quest to make medical education better and more fulfilling- for the students and for the teachers.

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