HYDERABAD: The suicide by Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) resident doctor Dr Siva Teja Reddy has once again brought to the light the pressure faced by medicos as his mother alleges that harassment by faculty and technicians has forced him to take the extreme step.
Meanwhile, his colleagues at NIMS said that Dr Siva Teja was a man of few words and his level of interaction was minimum with his colleagues. To address the issues faced by medical students, director of medical education Dr K Ramesh Reddy will be holding a meeting with principals of medical colleges, psychologists to come out with solutions on how to identify students who are under depression, facing pressure, and more importantly, how to prevent medical students from taking extreme steps of ending their lives. “We will hold the meeting this week,” Dr Ramesh Reddy told to Express. To inquire into death of Dr Siva Teja Reddy, a three-member committee has been constituted.
‘Students build pressure on their own’
Veteran doctors and medical student leaders feel that the pressure being in medical profession is equivalent to being in other field too. They claim that nowadays medicos take pressure on their own, which was not the case in the past.
“Earlier, one used to take coaching for Post Graduate entrance tests after completing MBBS course. Now, medical students start preparing for PG entrance tests right from MBBS second year. They opt for coaching at private institutes where classes continue for 12-13 hours a day. Some students bunk classes, house surgeons skip duties to attend the classes,” said Dr PS Vijayender, president of Telangana Junior Doctors Association.
“Most of the PG students get married in first or second year. And families expect doctors to earn in lakhs, which we don’t. To take care of expenses, some PG students work at private hospitals during night as they are paid between Rs 1,000-Rs 2,000 a day as duty medical officers. This too builds up the pressure on them ,” said a PG student.