Srinagar, Nov 22: State government is mulling to introduce Diplomate of National Board (DNB) courses in three major district hospitals of the Valley to overcome the shortage of specialist doctors for the better patient care.
State Health Department had moved a proposal for DNB courses at district hospitals in Baramulla and Islamabad (Anantnag) and at the Jawahar Lal Nehru Memorial (JLNM) Hospital in Rainawari, here.
Sources told Greater Kashmir that the Health Department is already in touch with the National Board of Examination (NBE), which conducts the DNB courses at the national level, for the inspection of the three hospitals for accreditation.
“Three hospitals short listed for the DNB courses are following the stipulated guidelines to get accreditation from the NBE, that looks to improve the quality of the medical education by elevating the level and establishing standards of postgraduate examinations in modern medicine on an all-India basis,” they said.
“The department wants three hospitals to get the NBE accreditation so that some doctors can be allotted seats in these three hospitals after the centralized tests for admission to various DNB programmes. This will help us improve the healthcare facility in these districts as specialist doctors would be doing DNB courses at these hospitals,” said an official. He said the senior doctors at these hospitals could teach the new students.
While the health department is facing wide spread criticism over the shortage of trained and specialized doctors, the introduction of DNB courses in the three hospitals would meet such shortage, said a senior medico.
However, the doctor said the department is yet to get the ‘Go Ahead’ allegedly due to lack of funds for the fixing the ‘stipend’ to such doctors during their three year training period in the hospitals.
“In the first stage, the Health Department proposes to start DNB courses in family medicine taking into account the available infrastructure,” he said.
When contacted, the Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman said, “Medical colleges and universities fail to cater to the demand for specialist doctors. So we have moved the proposal to arm our district hospitals with specialist doctors after they qualify a national-level test,” he said.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Nov 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 22 Nov 2012 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 23 Nov 2012 00:00:00 IST