Internships cancelled, 125 MBBS students asked to vacate hostels

Internships cancelled, 125 MBBS students asked to vacate hostels

Mar 14, 2024, 04.24 AM IST

Gurgaon: A total of 125 MBBS students of ESIC Medical College and Hospital in Faridabad have been asked to vacate their hostel rooms without any notice after their internship proposals were cancelled.

At any govt medical college, MBBS students must work as interns if they apply for an MD or higher degree course. Following a protest by the students, the dean of the college said they could not be considered for internships because they were not registered with the medical association yet.

On March 1, the academic branch issued internship orders after the graduates passed their MBBS exam but withdrew it within a few hours.

Deputy dean Dr Anil Kumar Pandey said that the internships were given to graduating students during the pandemic upon instructions from the Haryana Medical Council.

“That was a time of crisis. But now that we are returning to normalcy, we cannot continue with the same. The council in Sept 2023 released an order restricting the practice. From this batch, we are adopting the standard method of approving internship applications only after registration. The academic branch mistakenly issued the letter, but it was soon withdrawn,” said Dr Pandey.

“All our seniors were allowed to go straight to internships after their degrees. Why are we being discriminated against? They are making us leave our lodging too. We were never told about any new rule of discontinuing the internship,” a student said

Pandey mentioned that the college facilitates registration process with the state medical council, so that students don’t have to travel to Panchkula.

He added, “The students wrongly mentioned that they were registered with the state medical council in their grievance letter. They need to obtain the provisional registration receipt to be considered as practitioners.”

The management said that since the protesting alumni haven’t registered themselves as practitioners yet, they are neither students at the college nor interns. Therefore, they cannot be allowed to stay in the hostel. “Once they register, they will be allotted interns’ hostel on application, which we have made about 500m away from the campus,” the official said.

Pandey added that by Wednesday morning, 70 graduates had submitted their documents for approval, which will be facilitated by the college.