Docs can pursue studies after giving bond

Docs can pursue studies after giving bond

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:08.06.2020

The state government has informed Madras high court that it had passed a GO recently permitting medical practitioners who have not completed the period of compulsory service as per the bond executed, to pursue higher studies after obtaining bank guarantee equivalent to the bond amount.

The court was hearing a petition filed by K Gautham, who had completed MBBS in 2013 and was selected for diploma in Ophthalmology at Madurai Medical College under all India quota in May 2017. Though he had executed a bond to serve the state for two years after this course, he did not join duty on being posted as assistant surgeon after completing his course in 2019.

Meantime, he qualified for DNB (post diploma) with all India merit position and sought his certificates back to pursue the course and executed a bond for Rs 20lakh undertaking that he would complete the compulsory service after higher studies. The court had earlier directed the dean to return his original certificates stating that the authorities could encash the bond amount if the petitioner fails to join duty after the course. During the course of hearing, the state informed that a GO has been passed by the health and family welfare department to permit medical practitioners who have not completed the period of compulsory service to pursue further studies after they furnish bank guarantee equivalent to the bond amount for the period of course of higher studies.

33 from outside apply for post of Madras Univ VC

33 from outside apply for post of Madras Univ VC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:08.06.2020

Of 177 applications received for Madras University post, 33 are from outside the state and a professor from France also applied to the post.

Madras University vicechancellor search committee headed by Jawaharlal Nehru University vice-chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar uploaded the details of all applicants for the post on the university's website.

The list contains former vice-chancellors, registrars and directors of research centres. Professors from IIT Kanpur and IIT Madras also showed interest for the post.

Professors from Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh Punjab, Delhi, Karnataka and Jammu and Kashmir also applied. Madras University professors expressed surprise over the interest of professors from other states for the Madras University post. "We need experienced professors who have grip over local issues as vice-chancellor," they said.

Despite hike, junior doctors get lower than in most states

Despite hike, junior doctors get lower than in most states

Hemali.Chhapia@timesgroup.com

Mumbai:08.06.2020

There is wide variation in the stipend drawn by resident doctors, who work in public healthcare facilities for their post-graduate education, depending on which part of India they serve. Chhattisgarh pays the most. UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, all pay Rs 80,000-Rs 1 lakh a month while Maharashtra and the southern states lie in the mid-range, paying Rs 40,000-Rs 60,000 monthly. The Medical Council of India plans to make stipend post-MBBS uniform across the country, but the plan is yet to be cleared by all states.

Interns in central government-run hospitals are paid the highest, Rs 23,500 a month. Across India in state-run hospitals, their stipend varies from Rs 7,000 in Rajasthan to the highest in Karnataka now at Rs 30,000. Medical interns are students who have completed four-and-a-half years at a med school and do a compulsory residential internship at a hospital attached to the medical college for their degree.

While interns in Maharashtra get Rs 6,000, it was recently hiked to Rs 11,000 by the state. But BMC hospitals are yet to effect the change. Residents and senior residents in the state get Rs 54,000 and Rs 59,000 respectively (average of three years). BMC recently announced a temporary stipend of Rs 50,000 for MBBS interns for working in Covid-19 wards. But a permanent increase of Rs 10,000 is expected for residents, said the head of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research in Maharashtra Dr T P Lahane.

“Even after the recent hike of Rs 5,000, the state has among the lowest stipend that we pay our medical interns. That has a lot of scope for improvement,” said Dr Praveen Shingare, former DMER head. “Moreover, some hospitals like Yavatmal and the BMC-run hospitals slash tax on stipend, what residents get in hand varies across Maharashtra too,” added he.

At the post grad level, stipend varies for every state as also for each year of the resident. In some states, there are multiple scales; to attract talent,residents in rural areas get higher compared to what is paid in urban centres. For instance, in Chhattisgarh, residents in rural areas are paid Rs 20,000-30,000 more and seniors are paid Rs 1.5 lakh compared to their counterparts in city hospitals who get Rs 20,000 less. One of the reasons Bihar, UP, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand pay much higher, experts say, is because of the dependence on the public healthcare network in these states as compared to, say, Maharashtra, TN or Karnataka which have more hospitals driven by charitable trusts and private practitioners.

Founder member of Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare Dr Babu KV has been writing to MCI for a uniform stipend for interns, residents and seniors. “Just before the lockdown, the MCI was going to clear that rule for interns. Step two would be to bring about parity for PG residents and super-specialists too,” he said.

In Maharashtra, doctors complain that not only does the stipend vary across states, so does tuition and tax rules. While most states do not cut tax, some do. Resident doctors also pay an annual tuition cost. “Nowhere in the world do resident doctors pay hospitals for training. Why should they (post graduates and superspecialty candidates) pay tuition fees? This is an anomaly we first need to straighten out in India. They are made to pay because there are only a few slots for PG and superspecialty. If these seats are increased, the business model of medical education will collapse,” said cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty.

Resident doctors write to Council, demand cancellation of final exams

Mumbai

: Resident doctors, who are at the frontline of the battle against Covid, have sought cancellation of their final exams in a letter to the Medical Council of India (MCI). Claiming it would lead to the collapse of the healthcare system in the city and state, the resident doctors have said they cannot be pulled out of Covid duty for almost two months. A doctor said if exams were postponed, postgraduate doctors from Maharashtra would lag behind aspirants from other states in admissions for super specialty courses. “Other states are able to conduct their exams as their situation is not as bad as that of Maharashtra. Maharashtra should be considered a special case this year and exams should be cancelled,” the doctor said.

An official, however, said MCI norms do not permit cancellation of exams. “It is not possible to cancel exams for professional courses like medical,” the official said. TNN

Despite hike, junior doctors get lower than in most states

Despite hike, junior doctors get lower than in most states

Hemali.Chhapia@timesgroup.com

Mumbai: 09.06.2020

There is wide variation in the stipend drawn by resident doctors, who work in public healthcare facilities for their post-graduate education, depending on which part of India they serve. Chhattisgarh pays the most. UP, Bihar, Jharkhand, Haryana, all pay Rs 80,000-Rs 1 lakh a month while Maharashtra and the southern states lie in the mid-range, paying Rs 40,000-Rs 60,000 monthly. The Medical Council of India plans to make stipend post-MBBS uniform across the country, but the plan is yet to be cleared by all states.

Interns in central government-run hospitals are paid the highest, Rs 23,500 a month. Across India in state-run hospitals, their stipend varies from Rs 7,000 in Rajasthan to the highest in Karnataka now at Rs 30,000. Medical interns are students who have completed four-and-a-half years at a med school and do a compulsory residential internship at a hospital attached to the medical college for their degree.

While interns in Maharashtra get Rs 6,000, it was recently hiked to Rs 11,000 by the state. But BMC hospitals are yet to effect the change. Residents and senior residents in the state get Rs 54,000 and Rs 59,000 respectively (average of three years). BMC recently announced a temporary stipend of Rs 50,000 for MBBS interns for working in Covid-19 wards. But a permanent increase of Rs 10,000 is expected for residents, said the head of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research in Maharashtra Dr T P Lahane.

“Even after the recent hike of Rs 5,000, the state has among the lowest stipend that we pay our medical interns. That has a lot of scope for improvement,” said Dr Praveen Shingare, former DMER head. “Moreover, some hospitals like Yavatmal and the BMC-run hospitals slash tax on stipend, what residents get in hand varies across Maharashtra too,” added he.

At the post grad level, stipend varies for every state as also for each year of the resident. In some states, there are multiple scales; to attract talent,residents in rural areas get higher compared to what is paid in urban centres. For instance, in Chhattisgarh, residents in rural areas are paid Rs 20,000-30,000 more and seniors are paid Rs 1.5 lakh compared to their counterparts in city hospitals who get Rs 20,000 less. One of the reasons Bihar, UP, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand pay much higher, experts say, is because of the dependence on the public healthcare network in these states as compared to, say, Maharashtra, TN or Karnataka which have more hospitals driven by charitable trusts and private practitioners.

Founder member of Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare Dr Babu KV has been writing to MCI for a uniform stipend for interns, residents and seniors. “Just before the lockdown, the MCI was going to clear that rule for interns. Step two would be to bring about parity for PG residents and super-specialists too,” he said.

In Maharashtra, doctors complain that not only does the stipend vary across states, so does tuition and tax rules. While most states do not cut tax, some do. Resident doctors also pay an annual tuition cost. “Nowhere in the world do resident doctors pay hospitals for training. Why should they (post graduates and superspecialty candidates) pay tuition fees? This is an anomaly we first need to straighten out in India. They are made to pay because there are only a few slots for PG and superspecialty. If these seats are increased, the business model of medical education will collapse,” said cardiac surgeon Dr Devi Shetty.

Resident doctors write to Council, demand cancellation of final exams

Mumbai

: Resident doctors, who are at the frontline of the battle against Covid, have sought cancellation of their final exams in a letter to the Medical Council of India (MCI). Claiming it would lead to the collapse of the healthcare system in the city and state, the resident doctors have said they cannot be pulled out of Covid duty for almost two months. A doctor said if exams were postponed, postgraduate doctors from Maharashtra would lag behind aspirants from other states in admissions for super specialty courses. “Other states are able to conduct their exams as their situation is not as bad as that of Maharashtra. Maharashtra should be considered a special case this year and exams should be cancelled,” the doctor said.

An official, however, said MCI norms do not permit cancellation of exams. “It is not possible to cancel exams for professional courses like medical,” the official said. TNN

‘More incoming flights, pvt airlines likely to bring back stranded Indians’

‘More incoming flights, pvt airlines likely to bring back stranded Indians’

09.06.2020

Amid allegations of favouritism and ‘deliberate delay’ in the evacuation of distressed Indians in Covid-struck nations, the ministry of external affairs has been grappling with a growing waiting list of several lakhs of people. In an interview to Jaya Menon and V Ayyappan, minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan said the ministry has followed “a stringent and transparent” approach to select people only with “most compelling situations”. On complaints that the Indian Community Welfare Fund with consulates was not being used to take care of air fares for the needy, the minister said it was used by missions to support Indians in distress abroad including for food, accomm o dation, medical emergencies and transfer of mortal remains. Apprehensions expressed by some chief ministers, including Edappadi K Palaniswami, about the influx adding to the growing Covid numbers have delayed the process of consent for flights to land. Excerpts from the interview:

What were the criteria for selecting people for the rescue flights?

We have been advising our people to stay put wherever they are in the best interest of their own health and that of their family members. We also understand that people have compelling reasons to be in India and since we could not resume international travel, we have launched Vande Bharat Mission to offer limited assisted return to India. We have followed a stringent and transparent approach to select people only with the most compelling situations (pregnant women, laid off workers, deportees, amnesty cases, stranded in transit on visit visa, students and people with critical life threatening medical conditions). So far, close to 1,00,000 people have returned to India.

There are allegations of favouritism in shortlisting evacuees. A senior Indian official of the UAE-based NMC Health, which is under scanner for a multi-billion dollar fraud, and his family boarded the first flight from Abu Dhabi on May 7. How did that happen?

It is not appropriate to discuss individual cases. All I can say is that the returnees have been selected on the basis of the criteria as I explained.

In the UAE, more than 3,50,000 Indians have registered to return, of which only 6,000 were repatriated in the first two phases, till May 23. How will it be in the next phases?

Our embassy in Abu Dhabi and consulate in Dubai are constantly in touch with the diaspora to ensure their well-being. In Phase II around 100 flights have been planned from UAE to India. Between Phases I and II, 137 flights have arrived from UAE. Rules regarding chartered flights have also been simplified. More flights from UAE would be added in Phase III. There have been discussions with private airlines to join the mission.

Can the Indian community welfare fund be used to pay for the air fares of those who can’t afford tickets and the seven-day compulsory quarantine?

A decision has been taken that people willing to return would pay for their travel. People travelling on naval ships have also been paying. Our missions have been working closely with community associations to help those in need of travel assistance. As far as quarantine expenditure is concerned, the government has relaxed rules and reduced the expenses by half. Now, instead of 14 days, the institutional quarantine is for seven days. Some state governments have offered publicly funded quarantine facilities to those in need. ICWF has been regularly used by our missions to support Indians in distress abroad including for food, accommodation, medical emergencies and transfer of mortal remains.

Is there a plan to allow foreign airlines to evacuate Indians? Air India may not have enough long-range aircraft to go to the UK and the US where several Indians are stranded.

We are using incoming foreign flights. Seventy-four foreign carriers have been used to bring Indians home from different parts of the world.

Email your feedback with name and address to southpole.toi@timesgroup.

com

RETURN AT LAST : A flight from Dubai in May was the first international aircraft to land at Chennai post lockdown

Covid-19 may peak in various parts at different times: Panel

Covid-19 may peak in various parts at different times: Panel

Suggests Pooling Of Resources Among States For Better Health Infra

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:09.06.2020

The Covid-19 pandemic may peak in different parts of the country at different times, the 15th Finance Commission's high-level panel on health has observed, suggesting pooling of resources between states to ensure better availability of health infrastructure in every state.

Dr Randeep Guleria, director of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and convenor of the high-level group (HLG), underlined the need for a mechanism so that health resources like manpower and equipment could be moved from one state to another as per need. He said some states may be better equipped to manage increasing number of Covid-19 cases, while others could be challenged in terms of medical infrastructure.

Based on a statistical analysis, the panel said the path of the pandemic so far had also been different across states. Some like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Delhi continued to have a large number of active cases. However, there was some moderation of the curve in states like Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana and Kerala though spikes continue to happen. Overall, the average daily growth rate in infections from May 14 to May 18 considered by the study was estimated at around 5.1%.

Dr Balram Bhargava, director general of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), said the Covid-19 curve had not yet flattened but the impact had got distributed for a long haul of two to three years. Though he said deaths too had got distributed or spaced out, it is vital to keep mortality rate below 5%, cautioning that if the number of deaths per day rose to 1,000-2,000, it would become “alarming” for the government.

The ICMR also noted that the current strategy of ‘track, trace and treat’ was working well except in Maharashtra and Gujarat.

The 15th Finance Commission’s HLG on health, which met last month, made recommendations in three broad groups — very short-, shortand medium-term measures.

Very short-term measures included rapid testing for surveillance, containment to avoid cluster formation, ensuring supply of cost-effective medicines and provision of e-ICUs, rural mobile health units and supply of equipment like ventilators, PPEs, masks, continuous oxygen supply, and ‘hop in hop off ’ service for Covid-19 patients.

Recommendations for short-term measures included ‘outbreak management plan’ for the health sector as the country is likely to have similar outbreaks in future. Besides, it also suggested financing development of vaccine and provisioning funds to make it available to people.

The panel suggested increasing investment on health, addressing shortfall in health workforce, exploring possibilities of covering the remaining 60% of the population under Ayushman Bharat and creation of an All India Medical Services on the pattern of Indian Civil Services as medium-term measures.

A health worker takes swab sample of a man in Mumbai

74 days on, malls reopen to low footfall across country

74 days on, malls reopen to low footfall across country

Sales Too Remain Tepid On Day One

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

09.06.2020

As malls and shopping plazas across cities reopened on Monday after 74 days of lockdown, the spirit of business may have been unlocked but shoppers remained tied up in knots about whether or not to step out for that long overdue dose of retail therapy.

Most malls and plazas reported low to moderate footfall, and sales were tepid at best, according to retailers. At a mall in Lucknow's Gomti Nagar, a young couple who hadn't had a date in more than two months was among the few visitors throughout the day. They only visited the food court for a snack and a chat.

Ahmedabad's usually busy One Mall had a sprinkling of visitors in the first half of the day and almost none thereafter as rain put paid to chances of footfall picking up late afternoon. “Till 2pm, we had some 1,700 people coming in," said Jayen Naik, senior VP (operations) of the mall.

Kolkata seemed to be the exception, with managers of the larger malls such as South City and Acropolis saying their first-day turnout was decent for a Monday. "Stores selling kids wear and infant essentials did good business, as did some of the regular apparel stores. The F&B segment logged 30-40% of pre-Covid weekday sales," an official said.

Visitors wearing facemasks at a mall in New Delhi on Monday

Major temples in A’bad remain closed

While most large temples across Gujarat opened on Monday after more than two months, major temples in Ahmedabad stayed shut. They are likely to open after a week because they are situated in containment areas. The Iskcon temple on the SG Road was open.

Some Bengaluru malls seek more time to sanitise premises

Kolkata’s nearly 150-yearold New Market, which reopened for business a week ago, has been struggling to make up for the absence of visitors from Bangladesh, who constitute about 50% of its clientele.

In Bengaluru, not all malls reopened on Monday, while thosethatdidhadlittletocheer aboutin termsof footfall. Some malls put up boards saying they would open only from Wednesday as they required more time to sanitise the premises.

Caution was the buzzword at Chandigarh's Elante Mall, which deployed staff outside the building to prevent children below 10 and senior citizens above 65 from entering, as recommended by the government. A continuing tussle between retailers and the mall management over rent further dented the enthusiasm over business resuming after twoand-a-half months.

Hyderabad's City Center Mall, located in the tony Banjara Hills neighbourhood, didn't have even a fraction of the visitors and sales it records on a normal day. "We opened shops at 11am as usual, but the responsesofar hasbeen extremely poor. Those who entered our shop indulged only in window shopping," said Syed Salam, manager of an apparel store.

Some visitors had to be barred from entering the mall after they refused to download the Aarogya Setu app, an official said.

At Pondy Bazaar in the heart of Chennai, which has been developed as a pedestrian plaza under the Smart Cities Mission, the only sign of business activity was in shops selling mobile phones and accessories. Rows of textile showrooms, jewellery shops, a supermarket and multi-cuisine restaurants were almost deserted.

Pune's oldest marketplace, Laxmi Road, appeared to spring to life after a few sealed roads in the adjoining areas were reopened.

Jaipur's MI Road, a hub for jewellery, branded clothes, handicrafts,shoes andbags, reported15-20% of its usual business on Monday.

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