Mumbai: Doctors will have to compulsorily spend a year in rural or other government health services as there won’t be any scope for them to skip such duty. Also, they won’t be able to escape from the continued medical education (CME) programmes held by government departments.

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Wednesday said legal amendments have been made making government service in rural areas or at primary health centres mandatory for doctors.

The Maharashtra Medical Council Act 1965 provides for registration of persons practising modern scientific medicine in the state and regulation of their profession. Sources in the medical education department said that due to loopholes in the Act, students were finding various ways to escape the mandatory practice with government health centres in rural areas.

The basic purpose of the scheme was to meet a demand for doctors as a large number of medical officer posts of the government’s public health department remain vacant for want of qualified doctors. “The scheme failed because a large number of doctors failed to serve in rural areas despite signing the bond. There was not enough measures to catch hold of such candidates who violated the bond conditions,” said the state’s proposal that was discussed in the cabinet on Wednesday.

For proper implementation of the bond, an amendment in the Act was required. “The rapid advances in the field of medicine makes it mandatory to keep them updated. Therefore continued medical education is essential which can’t be avoided with this amendment,” a source said.

