India
can take a vital step towards the well-being of its citizens by increasing the
retirement age of government doctors employed in the services of the central
and state governments. In recent decades, the average lifespan of Indians has
been steadily improving. India has made significant progress in healthcare,
technology, and living standards. India's average life expectancy has risen
from about 37 years in 1950 to about 70 years now. However, the retirement age
of doctors has not kept pace with these changes. Although the retirement age of
doctors has been set at 65 years, there is scope to increase it further because
there is a shortage of doctors in government hospitals. The time has come to
raise the retirement age of doctors to 70 years. You will find hundreds of
doctors in the country who are practicing even beyond 70 years of age. Dr. R. K.
Caroli, a cardiologist associated with Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) in the
capital, used to see patients for four to five hours every day until the age of
90. He was the physician of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and Lal Bahadur Shastri.
In Mumbai too, renowned heart specialist
Dr. B. K. Goyal was active after seeing more than 80 springs. Hundreds
of such examples can be found.
Several
new medical colleges are going to be established in India in the coming years.
The government is trying to get more than 50,000 doctors every year from
medical colleges across the country. Besides these, there are also doctors who
come back to India after obtaining their medical degrees abroad. You can assume
that the number of doctors in the country's health sector will continue to
grow. Keeping this in mind, it is also necessary to ensure that the country's
health sector benefits from the experience of experienced and senior doctors.
This is being said because there can be no substitute for experience. Dr. Vinay
Agarwal, former president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), believes
that increasing the retirement age of government doctors to 70 will not only
alleviate the shortage of experienced doctors, but will also provide young
doctors with necessary guidance.
In
fact, experience matters a lot in the world of medicine. Here, when a young man
joins a medical college, he remains in touch with senior and experienced
doctors in addition to his teachers for guidance. Therefore, it is very
important that the experience of senior doctors remains available to those who
are coming into this profession. Senior doctors' experience and new doctors
coming into this profession can work together to better treat patients'
diseases. In this light, increasing the retirement age of government doctors
can be a necessary step. Since doctors take great care of their health, they
are fully fit to work till the age of 70.
Do you
need to be told that there is still a severe shortage of experienced doctors in
rural parts of the country? People from rural India go to hospitals in big
cities when they fall sick. Every day, thousands of people from far-flung
states go to AIIMS, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital
etc. in the national capital for treatment. If adequate doctors and superior
facilities were available in their villages, why would they come hundreds of
miles away? Increasing the age of government doctors can, to some extent, fill
the shortage of doctors in villages. There is a severe shortage of specialist
doctors in community health centres in rural India. This is a very worrying
situation. One solution to this problem is that increasing the retirement age
will give doctors posted there an opportunity to serve.
Dr.
Vinay Agarwal says that there is a need to fulfill the demand for surgeons,
obstetricians and gynecologists, physicians and pediatricians in rural parts of
the country. Increasing the service period of doctors will greatly remove the
shortage of specialist doctors in the villages.
Senior
doctors often play a vital role in health sector management and policy making.
Their service extension will enable their expertise to be used in shaping
policies and improving hospital management. As mentioned above, when the
retirement age for doctors was fixed in India, the average lifespan of Indians
was much lower. In the 1950s and 1960s, when the average life expectancy was
low, a retirement age of 55 years was considered appropriate. In the 1970s, it
increased to 58 years, and then to 60 years in the 1990s. In 2017, the
retirement age for doctors of the central government was increased to 65 years
to retain experienced medical professionals for a longer time. Now the need of
the hour is to increase the retirement age of doctors associated with central
and state government hospitals.
In US
and Europe, doctors associated with research work remain in service for their
entire life. When this system can be in other countries, why not in India?
India always has a demand for experienced doctors. The time has come for India
to review the retirement age for its doctors. It is to be hoped that the
government will take a decision in this regard soon.
(Views
are personal. Email: vivekshukladelhi@gmail.com)