In an effort to address the nation’s escalating respiratory health problem, the medical profession in India is uniting to fight for the return of respiratory medicine as a fundamental subject in the MBBS curriculum. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has received formal requests from NGOs and pulmonary and medical groups pleading with them to reevaluate eliminating respiratory medicine as a specialty for next medical graduates.
The critical need for this expertise has been brought to the attention of the high court through a petition filed by the Indian Chest Society (ICS), which represents pulmonologists nationwide. ICS Treasurer Dr. Rajesh Swarnakar reports that more than 10,000 medical students, healthcare professionals, and concerned people have endorsed the “Save the Saviours” cause. of view of the recent COVID-19 epidemic and the rise of chronic respiratory disorders such asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), and interstitial lung diseases, the program emphasizes the value of specialist training in respiratory medicine.
Dr. Swarnakar emphasized that physicians are ill-prepared to deal with the rising prevalence of respiratory illnesses due to the existing MBBS curriculum. With the high levels of air pollution, widespread tobacco use, and other environmental variables that lead to respiratory difficulties, this might put a considerable pressure on India’s healthcare system. He underlined that future medical professionals would not be able to treat or prevent diseases like TB, COPD, and asthma without adequate training in respiratory care, which would have a negative impact on patient outcomes.
Inadequate respiratory education at the MBBS level may have serious consequences, such as a 15–25% increase in morbidity from mismanaged common respiratory infections and a 30–50% increase in drug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) cases. Hospitalizations for uncontrolled asthma and COPD complications could increase by 20–30%, and preventable deaths from respiratory disorders could increase by 15–30%. In the event that medical personnel lack the requisite training in respiratory care, pandemics like COVID-19 may prove to be even more deadly in the future.
Inadequate training may also result in avoidable hospitalizations, the need for advanced treatment, and poor management of chronic illnesses, which might increase healthcare expenses by 20–30%. This case emphasizes how critical it is to give general practitioners the knowledge and abilities to treat respiratory disorders, offer preventative treatment, and lessen the impact of diseases linked to air pollution, ultimately raising the standard of healthcare in India.
SOURCE :
TIMES OF INDIA
