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