ANAESTHESIOLOGISTS ARE SCARCE IN INDIA : DR. RADHAKRISHNAN 

He was speaking at the 54th annual national conference of anaesthesiologists held at JSS Dental College in city yesterday.

"The Society will be opening the college with private participation, producing a few thousand anaesthesiologists every year," Dr. Radhakrishnan said and added that anaesthesiologists were not to be found in the hospitals in rural areas and hilly terrains, by which more than 60 per cent of the rural populace are affected by this.

"The scarcity of experts is not restricted to anaesthesiologists alone, but in other fields of medicine too. The experts' service is restricted for the benefit of urbanites alone," he said and emphasised the need to extend the same to rural areas also.

"We strongly oppose the Government's move to introduce an 18-week crash course in anaesthesiology," he said and opined that it would not produce qualified anaesthesiologists. "Instead, the seats in PG courses must be increased, by which the scarcity of experts will be overcome to some extent," he felt.

Dr. P.S. Prabhakaran, Vice-Chancellor of Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, speaking on the occasion, said that 600 different medical institutions came under the purview of the University. "But the cause of alarm is that none of the institutions concentrated on research," he said.

He exhorted the medical students to conduct more research works and also urged the teaching faculty to divert more attention towards research works.

Medical Education Minister Dr. V.S. Acharya, who was to be the chief guest of the function, was conspicuous by his absence.