COVID-19 pandemic highlights the need to reconsider psychiatry training of Indian medical graduate.

In the middle of COVID-19 crisis in India and the psychological impact on millions of peoples, is it time to reconsider psychiatry training for Indian medical graduate under the new competency-based curriculum? India has one of the highest numbers of medical colleges in the world and also has over a million doctors, including MBBS graduates working at the primary health-care centers who are important pillars for health-care delivery. In a major drawback that also plagued the earlier curriculum, the new competency-based curriculum has not incorporated a single mandatory skill in psychiatry which a medical trainee has to demonstrate to become doctor. Mental health and the COVID-19 pandemic are interlinked in a complex manner. Hence, millions are likely to have mental health consequences. With no skill required in psychiatry as a must for a medical trainee to become an MBBS doctor, the mental health services during or aftermath of a disaster are severely compromised and need urgent reconsideration under the new curriculum. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]