The Tamil Nadu government's move to start a 6- month Certificate course in Diabetology to train the practicing doctors in the health department has courted controversies with a group of working doctors filing a public interest writ petition in the Madras High Court questioning the legal validity of the course. The government's purpose to start the course was to meet the shortage of doctors treating diabetic patients in the state.

According to Dr. N. Rajendran, head of Diabetology department, Madras Medical College, the course is taught in distance mode and it is the first time in the country a state government is starting a certificate course on a specific subject for its working doctors.

Dr. Rajendran said the government had started a PG Diploma course in Diabetology in the year 1986 and has been continuing since then, but only three candidates are selected for the course every year and that cannot suffice to treat the increasing number of diabetic patients that turn out to the government hospitals everyday. So the government has decided to conduct a training course for those who have passed MBBS and working under government. The department has only 60 qualified doctors for treating diabetic patients currently.

For the Certificate course, Madras Medical College (MMC) has selected 150 candidates, Kilpauck Medical College (KMC) and Medical Colleges in Tanjavur and Madurai have admitted hundred candidates each. He said gradually all the medical colleges in the state will start the same course and doctors of rural areas will be given priority for admissions in the initial stages.

However, the PG Diploma course that has already been continuing is a full time residential course and was started with the recognition of the Medical Council of India (MCI). But the Certificate course has been started through a government order. As per the system, the students will be given two days classes by trained diabetologists on theory and practice every month. He said the Government General Hospital attached to the MMC receives 1,000 - 1,500 patients every day in addition to those referred to district and taluka hospitals.

Meanwhile, four practicing doctors jointly filed a public interest writ petition in the Madras high court questioning the legal validity of the course. The doctors asked how the government could conduct a medical course through distance education mode, that too with only two contact classes every month and without any attendance criteria for theory classes. Even the medical colleges identified for starting the courses have no infrastructure facilities, they said. The Court, on hearing the petition, has ordered notices to the government. But it did not stay the course and rather said admission to the course would be subject to the outcome of the petition.

No new courses, programme or training could be started or conducted except with prior permission of the Centre, in consultation with the MCI, the petitioners argued. Whereas, informed sources from the health department said the course needs no recognition from the MCI.

Dr. Rajendran said the course would help train doctors from rural areas, where the government's screening camps revealed that over two lakh people had high sugar levels, and eliminate the possibility of emergence of patients with diabetes in large numbers. "If doctors in rural areas are trained then incidences of complications due to diabetes will also come down. This will eventually bring down the expense for the government," he said.