Now, adopting family must for MBBS students

The young medical student must track and take care of the healthcare needs of the family till the next four years when they complete their MBBS degree

Hyderabad: In a novel initiative to engage with the community and for a better understanding of the value of equity in healthcare services, medical graduates from this academic year (2023-24) will have to adopt a family and become their first point of contact for all their medical needs. This is not all!

The young medical student must track and take care of the healthcare needs of the family till the next four years when they complete their MBBS degree. The novel initiative of adopting a family is part of the Family Adoption Program (FAP) mooted and being implemented by the National Medical Commission (NMC), as part of the newly-launched Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) for Under-Graduate course curriculum.

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The NMC, the regulatory body for medical education, in a notification released a few days ago, said that the family adoption programme will be implemented for the MBBS batch admitted in 2023-24. It is mandatory for all colleges to follow the guidelines mentioned in the family adoption programme, the NMC has clarified.

“Family adoption programme through village outreach is mandatory from MBBS batch admitted in the year 2023-24. Those batches who have introduced FAP shall assess the students as per the assessment module displayed on the website. It is mandatory for all colleges to follow the guidelines mentioned in the family adoption programme.”

The thrust is to ensure the medical students adopt a family from economically backward sections of society, preferably from a village or even a slum settlement. The fresh medical graduates are being encouraged to adopt such families that are residing a little bit far or outside the coverage of the nearest Urban or Primary Health Centre. The medical students will make weekend visits to the houses of the adopted families and interact with them and get to know about their healthcare needs.

The students are also supposed to maintain proper records of their interactions with their adopted family. Senior doctors who are familiar with the adoption programme pointed out that family adoption comes with its own challenges, as it is a difficult task to implement the programme. Students and college managements are likely to face difficulties in allocating families to each medical student and later face more issues in sustaining the initiative for the entire undergraduate programme.