We’ve not done enough for aviation medicine specialists: Air Chief

Bengaluru: Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal RKS Bhadauria on Thursday said that not enough has been done — in service terms — for aviation medicine experts and that it has resulted in declining interest in the important field.
“…We’ve not done enough for the aviation medicine people in terms of service. Do we need to look at why youngsters aren’t taking up aviation medicine? Let’s not sugar-coat things, they are not taking it up because it isn’t a good career option. The architecture itself is wrong, let’s work it out and resolve this issue,” Bhadauria said at the 58th Indian Society of Aerospace Medicine (ISAM) annual conference.
Stating that there is no doubt in his mind or that of the Indian Air Force (IAF) that aviation/aerospace medicine has been a leading factor in making IAF as capable as it is, the air chief said work on restarting the pilot-doctor programme, which was discontinued more than four decades ago.
“We’ll put some aviation specialists as full-fledged pilots as part of the pilot physician programme. This will allow you to do better. We need some approvals and clearances since the previous programme was closed. We are working on it,” he said.
14/11/19 Chethan Kumar/Times of India