Resident docs demand fee waiver

Resident docs demand fee waiver

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bengaluru:21.06.2021

Resident doctors have asked the state government to waive their fees for 2020-21 and 2021-22, saying since the pandemic began, they have been dedicatedly providing Covid care with hardly any academic activity and clinical exposure in their chosen specialties.

The Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors has said that students pay more than Rs 1.1 lakh fees annually, one of the highest among government medical colleges in the country, and get a monthly stipend of Rs 45,000, one of the lowest.

“We have chosen our specialisation with so much passion and hard work. But since last year, Covid was the only disease we worked on. We have not been able to get any continuation in learning in our specialisation. We have not been able to upgrade our skills in the chosen subjects,” said the association president, Namratha C. “We have crossed a year with Covid. The government should by now have alternative arrangements to tackle Covid. It should delist medical colleges with PGs from being Covid centres instead of using us as cheap labour.”

The association plans to start a symbolic protest, including a Twitter campaign, from June 21. “We shall continue to protest and will resort to other modes of dissent until our voices are heard by the minister for health (medical) education,” the association said in a statement.