The proposed rural medical education course received an unanimous approval from vice-chancellors of medical colleges and state officials attending a workshop organised by the Medical Council of India (MCI). MCI chairman Ketan Desai said this at a press conference at the end of the two-day workshop on 'alternative model of undergraduate medical education' in New Delhi on Friday.

Clearing doubts expressed by doctors from Kerala who protested on the first day of the workshop, Desai said, “This course is in no way designed to degrade the medical profession and is not going to replace anybody.”

At the workshop it was decided that the course be called "bachelor of rural healthcare" instead of "bachelor of rural medicine and surgery", since the graduates would not be allowed to do surgery.

“The infrastructure at the sub-centres is limited. Surgery and super-speciality will not be taught in this course because the graduates will not have the required infrastructure at those hospitals,” said Desai.

He further added that the rural medical graduates would not under any circumstances be allowed to practice in the urban areas. Nor would they be allowed to sit for post-graduation exams and be at par with the MBBS doctors.

Students graduating from this course will be allowed to serve only in the rural areas of the district college they graduate from. Incase there are not enough students from one district, students from the neighbouring district can apply.

Once approved by the health ministry, the model of the course will be sent to states.

Each district will be allotted Rs 20 crore under the National Rural Health Mission for setting up medical colleges for the rural medical education course.