Disclosing this while speaking at the inauguration of the XII Annual Conference of the Karnataka Chapter of the Indian Association of Medical Microbiologists, organised by the Department of Medical Microbiology of the M R Medical College here on Saturday, Additional Director General Dr R Sambasivarao of the Directorate General of Health Services of Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said a separate national body will be constituted to manage the medical PG course.

Hitherto MCI had remained the lone apex professional body of medical education. He said the government has also decided to constitute National Paramedical Council for the effective governing of para medical courses.
Dr Sambasivarao said although there were 271 medical colleges in the country there was a dire need for more medical colleges to cater to growing needs of medical education. The National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda has also underlined the need for giving a boost to medical education.

Indian students were still migrating to foreign countries like China, South Africa, West Indies  etc to pursue their medical education, he added.

He said there was a dearth of medical professionals apart from uneven distribution of medical services in the country and the central government has launched the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) at a huge cost of Rs 15,000 crore to address the issue. Only 30 per cent of the population lived in urban areas but 70 per cent of the medical professionals have concentrated their services only in urban areas. Only 30 per cent of medical professionals have been serving 70 per cent of the population in rural areas.

The Additional Director General lauded Karnataka for playing a pioneering role in promoting medical education and also for large scale privatisation of medical education opening doors for the large sections to take up medical careers.