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KOCHI: How effective was the communication between the doctor and yourself during the last consultation? Not many would have given it serious thought. Nonetheless, this is one crucial area which has proved the achilles heel even to several medical specialists of global repute.
A good doctor-patient communication is imperative to the health sector’s robustness, especially in a country like India where over 75 per cent of doctors across the country are reported to have encountered at least some sort of violence by kin or bystanders of patients, as per the Indian Medical Association (IMA) statistics.
To enable doctors to effectively deal with the emerging scenario and equip them with the necessary skills, the Federation of Royal College of Physicians, UK, is holding a unique training programme for postgraduate doctors which focuses on clinical examination of patients and the assessment of how candidates interact with patients and distressed relatives in mock scenarios. This is part of an MRCP diploma course offered by the FRCP-UK for medical graduates. Abraham Chacko FRCP, a UK-based cardiologist, said the MRCP is an internationally respected post graduate non-profit medical diploma offered by the FRCP. The examination consists of three parts and the final part involves clinical examination of patients in mock scenarios to assess the interactive skill of a doctor during consultation.
So for the first time, an elite panel of doctors from the UK will come down here to prepare candidates for the examination. The preparatory course titled ‘MRCP PACES preparatory courses’ will he held at Kottakkal in association with Aster Group under the supervision of doctors from the UK.
Only 40 doctors on a first come, first served basis will be considered for the course. Since not many docs are naturally blessed with good communication skills, it is necessary to provide them with formal training on this front. Though it is a grey area in the country’s health sector, effective communication between doctor and the patient has been regraded as a must-have quality for medical practitioners in the West for several decades now, he said.
Tahsin Neduvanchery MRCP, a cardiologist with Aster, said the FRCP delegation will also make use of the opportunity to provide two-year training in the UK for aspiring medical practitioners hailing from here as part of the training initiative. An interview in this regard has been scheduled for October 26 and the doctors can register their names online. Though the Indian doctors lack communication skills, they are in great demand in the West. Those who complete the MRCP course can also avail better opportunities abroad as the diploma is considered a key degree in the West,” he said.
[“Source-newindianexpress”]
