IMA opposes bill envisioning 100-pc central allotment for state medical seats

The IMA on Monday opposed the draft Postgraduate Medical Education Regulation Bill that proposes a 100per cent central allotment for state medical seats stating that it is against the autonomy and envisioned role of the states in working towards public health as the right of the citizensAccording to the bill all seats will be filled by the Centre and the states will have no role in it the Indian Medical Association IMA pointed outIndia being a federal state leaving the role of states in medical education will be disastrous it said demanding that the existing system of admission and selection criteria must continue for the PG seatsIt also demanded that the National Medical Commission NMC withdraw the antifederal antistudent antidemocratic antipatient care and antipublic health draft bill try to initiate a dialogue with the stakeholders to understand the ground reality and do course correction to ensure uniform standards of education and a uniform pattern of the scale of pay stipend and facilities provided to the interns faculties and residents tooIn a statement the IMA said the original Medical Council of India MCI was functioning with democraticallyelected state representatives who always voiced for the collective consciousness of state welfare However as the NMC is full of nominated people it is slowly excluding all state governments from the administration of medical educationAs of date the broadspecialty postgraduation course admission is carried out through PGNEET and 50 per cent admission is done under the AllIndia quota by the DGHS and the remaining 50 per cent seats are admitted by the state governmentsBut according to the draft regulation There shall be common counselling for admission in all medical educational institutions to all postgraduate broadspecialty courses DiplomaMDMS on the basis of merit list of the National Exit Test and to all postgraduate superspecialty courses DMMCh on the basis of merit list of the National EligibilitycumEntrance Test the IMA pointed outIt alleged that the NMC is still in a dilemma and has not given any clarity on the proposed NEXT examHowever this notification says when a student writes his exam the mark he scores will be valid for three years and he can rewrite the exam only after three years This is a great injustice to the students As it has proposed to conduct the NEXT exams in 2023 the NMC should come out with the pattern and type of examination after having wider democratic consultation with the students body faculty states and largest professional body IMA the statement readThe IMA in principle welcomed the district residency but said making it for a threemonth period will result in overcrowding and impact the work in the medical college departmentsEven for nonclinical postgraduates spending three months in a district hospital will hamper the continuous theory and practical training it said and demanded that the duration of the training period in the district hospitals be reduced to a monthThe revised proposals for certain broadspecialty courses to multiple superspecialty options have been drafted without due considerations of the students opinion and often changing it like this will create uncertainty and heartburn for the students preparing for the NEET SS exams the statement saidEqually the move to open up a dual degree in postgraduation and candidates doing simultaneous PhD are good to postulate but in reality will jeopardise the clinical acumen and involvement of the postgraduates inpatient careThe NMC which has been formed with great fanfare and promises is now running into a nonperforming body and playing the role of a silent spectator when the issues of interns medical students and also the registered doctors are raised The NMC fails to respond to the death of 1589 doctors in Covid19 nor to issues of violence on doctors However they want to make inroads of mixopathy and centralising powers at the cost of the states the association saidThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever