Centre to permit overseas Indian doctors to practise in Country

The Central government will soon allow Indian doctors abroad to practise in India without undergoing any screening tests, said Union Health Secretary P K Pradhan here on Wednesday.

He was addressing the CEO Forum, held as part of the three-day Global Healthcare Summit which began on Tuesday. 

He said the government is ready with the Bill to amend the Medical Council of India (MCI) Act and to allow the overseas Indians to practise in their homeland as per the demand of the expatriate professionals. 

“We expect to bring the Bill during the Budget session of the Parliament,” he said. Soliciting ideas and partnerships from the private sector, Pradhan said the government was planning to improve the secondary care by upgrading the district hospitals. “There is a huge scope for partnership with the private sector in the areas like diagnostic services and labs. We will encourage district hospitals to run medical college campuses to augment the capacity in PG education and private players can help in this area,” he said.

Dr Jagadish Prasad, Director General of Health Services, urged the private sector hospitals to reserve 10 per cent of the services free of cost to the poor people under the corporate responsibility and in a bid to make the healthcare accessible. He also said the Government wanted to cooperate with the private sector in the areas like tele-medicine, besides preventive measures such as screening, community medicine, upgrading secondary and tertiary care.

Chairing the session, T K A Nair, advisor to the Prime Minister, wanted both the government and the private sector players to prepare a road map to make accessible affordable drugs and healthcare to the people.

Among those to the high-profile meet are Device Controller of India Dr Eswara Reddy, Dr K K Talwar, Chairman of Medical Council of India, Rajeev Sadanandan, State Principal Health Secretary, Dr Prem Nair Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences medical director, Dr Jeremy Lazarus president of American Medical Association, Delhi Stevan Smith Health Attache from US Embassy and CEO of Medtronic Omar Ishrak.