HYDERABAD: Senior resident doctors from the State staged protest at Telangana State Medical Council's office in Koti on Monday complaining that Telangana State Medical Council (TSMC) is delaying registration of their degrees. As per earlier rules, after three-years of post graduate medical course the PG students had to serve at government hospitals for one-year to become eligible for registering their degree with the council. Those serving the government for one-year are called senior resident doctors.
However, chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on March 8 announced that one year government service was removed. Telangana Medical Practitioners Registration (Amendment) Bill,2018, with this change was tabled in assembly on March 20, and a gazette notification was issued. With this decision, PGs can register their degrees with the council soon after passing the course.
The benefit will be reaped by those who complete the course from this year. And the PGs who completed the course in 2017 and who will complete their one-year service in June of 2018, contended that they will lose out on job opportunities if they too are not allowed to register their degrees.
"Those who completed PG in 2017 will complete the one-year government service in June 2018. And their juniors, who will complete their PG by end of May this year, will get their registration sooner than their seniors and move ahead with applying for jobs. If this happens, the juniors will have jump start and the seniors cannot pursue career options if their degrees are not registered," said Dr P Vijayender, president of Telangana Junior Doctors Association who participated in the protest. He demanded TSMC to allow senior residents to register their degrees at the earlier.
However, a senior official from Health department said that orders were passed to TSMC to allow the senior residents to register their degrees. 'They can get the registration and complete the one-year service. Else, they will be at disadvantage as their juniors will apply to jobs early and pursue other options," the senior official said.