Niti Aayog proposes a Bridge Course in medicine for BDS

Niti Aayog has proposed a Bridge Course between BDS and MBBS in an attempt to address the acute shortfall of doctors in the country. The successful completion of the course would allow dentists to practice family medicine. This move is based on the fact that the dental courses in the country follow the same training and curriculum as the MBBS courses for the first three years. This proposal looks to empower dentists in the country to cater to primary health care.

A meeting regarding this will be held today. Earlier a meeting about scaling up of medical education in India was conducted at the Prime Minister’s Office on April 9, 2019. The notice which was issued on Wednesday stated that in the meeting held it was decided to explore the options of allowing dentists to practice family medicine/mainstream medicine following the bridge course.

The proposed meeting to be held in Niti Aayog is to discuss the issues on leveraging dentists to provide primary health care thereby reducing the gap in the current shortfall of doctors in the country. The meeting to be held will include the secretary general of the Dental Council of India (DCI) and the Director General of the Dental Service in the Armed Forces.

Talks about allowing dentists to practice medicine after a bridge course have been doing the rounds from over a year ago by the DCI with the Medical Council of India. The DCI argued that this was a feasible move which could benefit both dentists and also address the doctor shortage.

Niti Aayog has earlier on proposed a bridge course Ayush (Ayurvedic, Homeopathic, Siddha and Unani) doctors in the National Medical Commission Bill meant to replace the Indian Medical Council Act. This bridge course was meant to enable Ayush Doctors to practice allopathic medicine and reduce the shortage of doctors in rural areas. However, this was faced by countrywide protests by the IMa which forced the government to drop the idea.

However, speaking to the media about letting Dentists practice medicine with the help of a three-year bridge course the National President of IMA, Dr. Shantanu Sen mentioned that the government has failed to develop each branch of medicine as separate fields and just wants to show the world that we have enough doctors. He also added that the government is trying to hide its failure by adopting such a mix practice, adding that the move is highly risky. “It is a criminal offense to let dentists into mainstream medicine by just doing a bridge course.”