CHENNAI: The freshers from around the state, who had joined the city’s prestigious Madras Medical College (MMC) are enjoying an unscheduled holiday that will go on till September 14, thanks to the severe space crunch at the hostel facilities of the institution. On September 1, the day the college reopened, male students from MBBS and paramedical streams staged a protest urging the management to accommodate freshers elsewhere, as the hostel was already congested. Their protest even received support from the parents of these freshers.
Following this, the management took the issue to the senior officials of the state health department, which instructed the freshers to go back to their respective native towns on leave and not return till September 14.
Finally, the college management’s desperate measures to find accommodation space for new students have found some success.
As many as 75 women trainee doctors (UG students doing internship), who were staying at the women’s hostel opposite the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, are being shifted to old Out-Patient (OP) building near Tower II block on the hospital premises.
“Initially, the management requested us to shift to the new women’s hotel on the erstwhile old prison premises. While it is okay for MBBS students, whose daily routine is filled with academic activities, it is unsafe for final year students like us who have night duty. Due to safety and security concerns, we did not agree to the proposal,” said a woman trainee doctor.
She added that they had apprehensions when they were offered space in the old OP building, as there were plans to demolish and reconstruct the building. “Dr S Geethalakshmi, director of the medical education, assured us that there will be no demolition until we complete our internship in March. That’s why we agreed to shift there,” she said.
“We have no problems shifting to the old OP building because the arrangements are satisfactory. But we hope that they won’t demolish the block before we complete our internship and make us struggle again,” said another student.
Dr R Vimala, the dean of the college, told City Express that the issue of space crunch had been resolved for now with a series of measures and the male students among the freshers would be on leave till next Monday. The OP building, she added, would not be demolished till March, until the students completed their internship.
Meanwhile, women MBBS students have been shifted to the new women’s hostel built on the erstwhile central prison premises. As the entire old women’s hostel is vacant now, the paramedical male students, who have been accommodated with MBBS students in the men’s hostel near Broadway, are being shifted there. Once the crowd is reduced at the men’s hostel, freshers will be accommodated, some sources said.
Though the issue is gradually getting resolved, the youngsters are not pleased about the way they have been made to suffer for want of space, and that too at one of the most prestigious medical education institutes in the state.
“The authorities had announced that a new block will be build on the men’s hostel premises to avoid extreme congestion. But a year had gone by and we don’t know what happened to that proposal now,” lamented an undergraduate student.