Health Services and Medical Education: A Programme for Immediate Action

The government of India’s Ministry of Health and Family Planning appointed the Group on Medical Education and Support Manpower on November 1, 1974, under the chairmanship of Dr. J. B. Shrivastav (director general of the government’s Health Services at the time). The Group’s findings were published in this report in 1975.The Group was to devise a curriculum for training Health Assistants who would serve as a link between qualified medical practitioners and multipurpose health workers. The Health Assistants would have to be familiar with the government’s basic medical aid, preventive and nutritional, family welfare, and maternal and child welfare services. Additionally, the Group had to suggest ways to emphasise health issues of national importance in existing medical education programmes.This 63-page report contains eight chapters and three appendices, which cover such themes as health services and personnel in India, community health and primary health centres (PHCs), problems in the country’s existing medical education programmes, the objectives of medical education, the Group’s recommendations, and others.