Preparations on for amending Medical Education Act: Health Minister Basnet

Kathmandu, Sept 22: Minister for Health and Population, Mohan Bahadur Basnet, has spoken of the need to amend the National Medical Education Act, 2075 to address the gaps in the legislation. He said so in a discussions programme on ‘Curriculum on Teaching of Geriatric Care’ organized by the Rapti Academy of Health Science here today. The Health Minister underscored on removing the demerits of the Act.

“The Medical Education Act should be amended. Let us move forward by embracing the good aspects and make a good start by removing the weaknesses,” he said, stressing on the need of producing the required health professionals within the country itself. The Health and Population Minister also reiterated that the State should not be weakened for fulfilling the objectives of certain people.

Stating that the entire Council of Ministers, including the Prime Minister, is agreed on the amendment to the Act, he said the process has already moved forward on the topics to be amended in the Act, with the involvement of the representatives of the Ministry of Health and Population and the Nepal Medical Education Council. Minister Basnet stated that health and education are not only the basic needs of the people, but also the fundamental rights of the citizen.

He added that the government is actively working to provide free health services to the citizen. RAHS to provide course on Geriatric Health Care Meanwhile, the Rapti Academy of Health Science (RAHS) has made preparations for teaching the Geriatric subject with the objective of producing the geriatric disease specialists within the country itself. RAHS has also prepared the curriculum of the subject after consultations with the related experts.

RAHS director and geriatric disease specialist Dr Ramesh Kandel informed that RAHS is going to teach the Geriatric subject for the first time in the country in the context of lack of ‘MD and Fellow’ programme in the subject. The number of elderly people is increasing in the country of late. The number of geriatric specialists is nominal compared to the senior citizens population. Only eight geriatric disease specialist physicians are registered with the Nepal Medical Council so far. Of them, only three are working in Nepal at present.