For improving the quality, access, and responsiveness of primary healthcare in rural India, it is important to create and retain competent healthcare professionals. To achieve that:
– Rural training sites need to be available for physicians and nurses where they can practice and learn skills for primary and secondary healthcare, a model successful in Bayalpata Hospital, Nepal.
– Adequate training must be supplemented with post-training support and placements. To deliver high-quality care in rural areas, doctors and nurses must get better salaries, improved working and living conditions, and career progression.
– Primary care team must be supported through incentives, regular skilling, and supervision. They must have functional linkages with higher levels of healthcare.
– The current graduate training of nurses and doctors has a strong urban and tertiary healthcare bias. The curriculum should be revised to align with rural priorities like producing rural family physicians and primary care nurses.
– Setting up family medicine programs in medical institutions, with a strong rural focus.