| Junior doctors staffing India's primary health centres face a variety of problems for which they are not prepared. These mainly revolve around the fact that the new MDs are expected to bring comprehensive care to unrealistically large populations despite inadequate transportation facilities, medical supplies, sanitation equipment, and referral services. The author suggests, therefore, that several areas of practice are essential to the medical student's training. These include: treati illnesses and emergencies with a limited number of available drugs, under a specialist's supervision (perhaps through a 6-month posting in the casualty and obstetric departments of a district hospital); organizing mass health campaigns; performing vasect collecting common vital statistics and hospital data, and preparing maps, charts, graphs, etc. for display and evaluation; teaching health education; managing the health centre, its equipment, supplies, and records; and supervising the other personnel. F student must learn to study the attitudes, needs, traditions, and leadership patterns of the area in which he is to work in order to enlist cooperation and involvement from the community. |