New Delhi- To cater to the new cadre of family medicine physicians (FMPs) in India, the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Institutes of National Importance (INIs) have finally begun a Postgraduate (PG) course on family medicine.

As per the TOI media news report, regarding this, a meeting was recently held at AIIMS Rishikesh in which the announcement of starting a course on Family Medicine was made. The meeting was chaired by NITI Aayog member VK Paul, along with several other doctors from 11 AIIMS across India who were also present in the meeting. Earlier also, a meeting was held on this, between the officials of the Union Health Ministry and NITI Aayog.

Speaking to the TOI, Dr Santosh Kumar, a senior doctor at AIIMS Rishikesh said “There is a huge gap between community healthcare and super-specialists, and FMPs will help bridge this gap. They will address issues by looking into family medical history and treating patients at the primary level, reducing the unnecessary tendency for patients to seek super-specialists when it is not required. An all-new cadre of FMPs would cater to the medical needs of most vulnerable communities, especially at primary healthcare level”.

Meanwhile, around 45 postgraduate seats have been allotted to various AIIMS across the country for this academic session i.e. 2024-25. The postgraduate course in family medicine would include studying general medicine, basic surgery, gynaecology, paediatrics etc.

On this, Medical Dialogues had Earlier reported as per the official reports that the government is planning to start a postgraduate course in family medicine at six All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) to fill the gap created by the paucity of specialist doctors and also to bring back the concept of family physicians. The course was likely to be offered at AIIMS Raipur, Rishikesh, Jodhpur, Patna, Bhubaneswar and Bhopal campuses. Along with this, the course was likely to begin in hospitals across India.