Coronavirus cases in India have crossed 700 (Representational)
India should take a cue from UK and Italy and allow final year medical students to skip their exams and bring them into the hospital system immediately to fight the war against COVID-19, noted cardiac surgeon Devi Prasad Shetty on Friday said.
The Chairman and Founder of the Bangaluru-based Narayana Health said there should be some reforms in medical education like in the UK and Italy.
In the UK, he noted, final year medical students have been told that they don't need to appear for exams, and that they will be given passes based on their past performance so that they can get into the hospital system to fill the shortage.
After the move to cut short the medical course by 9 months, Italy added 10,000 more doctors to their system, he said.
COVID-19 battle can be only won by young doctors and young nurses. It's like a war, Devi Shetty told PTI.
He said, "None of the senior doctors will be able to touch the patients because they are past the age of 50. Any above 50 is extremely vulnerable himself and this is a highly contagious disease. But we don't have that many doctors. We need one and half lakh doctors to manage all the government hospitals and private hospitals (to fight COVID-19)", he added.