NEW DELHI: Flooded with grievances from medical students, parents, and other stakeholders on various academic and clinical training issues, including the non-payment of stipends to interns and postgraduates, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has advised that these complaints should first be handled by the colleges, followed by the universities they are affiliated with, and then by the states.
In its advisory, the NMC also said, “If a grievance requires intervention at the NMC level, the same may be escalated to NMC for necessary resolution.” This is the first time that NMC has clearly stated the three steps students should undertake to address their grievances. They should first approach colleges, then the university, and finally the Directorate of Medical Education /Health and Medical Education Department of the State/UT for redressal.
The July 8 notice comes when 64 MBBS interns were suspended by the Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences (CAIMS), a private medical college in Telangana, for a week following protests by them over the non-payment of government-mandated stipends.
The non-payment of stipends is a key demand of interns and PG students, and has also been taken up by various resident doctors’ associations, as many colleges, both government and private, have failed to pay.
According to the NMC, 60 medical colleges, including 33 government institutes and 27 private colleges, have not paid stipends, and another 50 have paid stipends of less than 5,000, with some as low as 2,000.
RTI activist, Dr K V Babu, who has been pursuing for the past year the issue of stipends, said the NMC is shirking its “responsibility.” “Now NMC is asking the interns to address the grievances at the college/University/DME level. Internship is for twelve months only. By the time the interns use all these avenues, the twelve-month period will be over,” he told this paper.
“By issuing the notification, the NMC is shirking its responsibility from non-payment of stipends, though they have the data on stipends by various medical colleges. Last year, NMC issued a show-cause notice to 198 medical colleges, warning them of potential penal action for failing to submit stipend details. But no action has been taken until now.”
He added that NMC can take action against medical colleges that don’t comply with Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations (MSEME).
Over stipend
The non-payment of stipends is a key demand of interns and PG students, and has also been taken up by various resident doctors’ associations, as many colleges, have failed to pay.
60 medical colleges, including 33 govt and 27 private colleges, have not paid stipends, and another 50 have paid stipends of less than 5,000, with some as low as 2,000.