NMC needs to change ‘discriminatory’ stand on stipend

NMC needs to change ‘discriminatory’ stand on stipend Special CorrespondentMARCH 05, 2022 18:39 IST UPDATED: MARCH 06, 2022 00:15 IST Students returning from Ukraine can do internship in India after taking FMG exam The National Medical Commission (NMC) has stepped in quickly to reassure the undergraduate medical students returning from Ukraine that they will be allowed to do their internships in medical institutions within the country after they clear the qualifying Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) Examination. The NMC’s circular issued on Friday states that “the stipend and other facilities extended to FMGs should be equivalent to that of Indian medical graduates being trained at government medical colleges, as fixed by the appropriate authority applicable to the university/institution/State.” While appreciating NMC’s diligence in addressing the concerns of FMGs, it was ironic that the magnanimity extended by NMC with regard to the stipend to be given to FMGs had been missing with regard to Indian medical graduates studying in private medical institutions within the country, some health professionals pointed out. In fact, the NMC circular of March 4 clearly discriminates against interns (house surgeons) in private medical colleges, who are being paid next to nothing by most private medical college managements. The NMC, which has called for equal stipend for FMGs as Indian medical graduates in government medical colleges, has till date refused to address complaints of interns in private self-financing medical colleges about the raw deal given to them. The issue of house surgeons in private medical colleges being paid a pittance as stipend by college managements, while their counterparts in government medical colleges are paid handsomely, has been a burning issue since long. In Kerala, despite a GO and a circular by the Kerala University of Health Sciences that house surgeons be paid stipend on par with the government college students, private managements continue to deny a decent stipend to medicos. The former Medical Council of India (MCI) had in 2019 brought out a public notice that all students pursuing compulsory rotating internship at the institution from which MBBS course was completed should be paid stipend on a par with the stipend being paid to the interns of the State/Central government medical institutions. But this was never published as a gazette notification. The NMC, which was set up in 2020 after the dissolution of MCI, however, weakened this stand of the MCI. Its notification on undergraduate medical education dated 18th November 2021 (Schedule IV, item 3) says that “all interns shall be paid stipend as fixed by the appropriate fee fixation authority as applicable to the institution/university/ State.” K.V. Babu, a health professional based in Payyannur, said that when NMC brought out the draft regulation in April 2021 and invited suggestions from the public, he had immediately responded to the same. “The NMC’s stand that “stipend will be fixed by appropriate fee fixation authority” was vague and it will give ample opportunity for private managements to deny stipend to MBBS interns. I suggested that the NMC re-draft the statement so that the “students of private medical colleges be paid stipend on par with the amount being paid to the interns of the State government medical institution / Central government medical institution in the State / Union Territory where the institution is located. It was ignored by NMC,” said Dr. Babu. “The NMC’s current concern that FMGs be paid the same stipend for internship as students in government medical colleges is much appreciated. But by their own regulation, they have denied the same privilege to medical students in private medical colleges in the country. This should be corrected,” he added. Dr. Babu has now written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and the chairman of NMC drawing their attention to the issue of the meagre stipend paid to medical students by private medical college managements and requesting them to invoke Section 45 of the NMC Act, 2019, to re-draft the regulation The NMC should issue fresh notification regarding stipend for MBBS interns so that its latest circular of March 4, providing for equal stipend for FMGs is not discriminatory towards the hundreds of medical students in private medical colleges across the country, he demanded.