Saturday 4 February 2017

Indian Medical Association: “NO” to NEXT

Indian Medical Association: “NO” to NEXT Suggestions of the IMA are as under: • Common final MBBS examination. • A national schedule for final MBBS Examination including date of declaration of result applicable for all the examining universities in the country should be made. • PG entrance examination for the purpose of commonality of the date of the commencement i.e. PG NEET to be conducted within 45 days from the date of declaration of the common MBBS final result, which is included in the declared schedule. • The Rotating internship to begin on a common date, so that it also in the generic sense ends on the common date across the country. • Allowing foreigners to participate in NEET is discrimination unless there is country reciprocity. • Putting a cap of 25 years for NEET exam & maximum 3 attempts is taking away the rights of students. The rationale for the aforesaid suggestions is based on the material reality that the different examining universities, which almost number more than 100 as of now have their different schedules of examination resulting in different dates of commencement of the examination, declaration of the result and therefore commencement of the rotating internship and accordingly different dates for the completion of the same. As a result of this in spite of the eligibility of appearance at the postgraduate entrance test being completion of the rotating internship before 31st March of the concerned year, there is invariably a loss of six months. Further, the period of internship, which otherwise is expected to be a period of hands-on training under supervision in operational reality, stands reduced down to the intern mugging up MCQs on a whole time basis eating into the vitals of the period of internship and thereby defeating the set out purpose in a big way. This malady can be sorted out by the suggestion so made, whereby the schedule of final MBBS examination would be common including the dates of declaration of results thereto. This would entail commencement of the internship on a common date and resultant completion of the same. Further, if PG NEET is held within 45 days from the date of declaration of the common result of the MBBS examination, the internship can be meaningfully completed and the existing loss of more than 6 months, which takes place as of now would easily be avoided; hence, these solutions vide the suggestions aforesaid made. Why are we opposing the screening exam? The screening test came to be incorporated by the Government of India, vide an amendment to section 13 of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. The Indian Citizen holding foreign medical qualification seeking registration in to a State Medical Register is required to clear the said screening test which is conducted by the National Board of Examination. Upon clearing the same he / she is entitled for a provisional registration with the State Medical Council and then is mandated to complete the rotating internship satisfactorily in a recognized medical college. Upon the said completion he / she is entitled to seek permanent registration in the State medical register. The condition of satisfactory completion of internship is mandated in view of the fact that during the said period he / she is to undergo hands on training under supervision so that they are well-equipped for purposes of handling the health-related issues as registered medical practitioner. This entails that the said graduates possessing foreign medical qualification do not remain half-baked and are appropriately oriented to practice modern medicine as registered medical practitioner. It is also a matter of record that the inspection teams of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and also joint inspection teams of MCI along with representatives of the Government of India, had inspected medical schools in Soviet Russia as well as in China and have observed that the standards operating there are far from satisfactory and are not in consonance with those that govern the Indian system of medical education in medical colleges located in India under the ambit of the MCI as their regulatory body. In view of the logical rationale that has been quoted herein above, the proposed waiver of the said screening test would open floodgates for foreign medical education holders where the standards of education are far from satisfactory and are compromised for easy, handy and unchecked / unfiltered permission to them who realistically would be half baked doctors and would be licensed to deal with the lives of Indian population at the premium of a very high risk which would not be conducive to the public interest at large, hence the opposition. Reservation of PG Seats The proposed 50% of the reservation of PG seats would not augur well in as much as presently 50% of the PG Diploma Seats in terms of governing PG regulations are already earmarked for the public health personnel under State govt UT/ Government of India. In addition to the same, the proposed reservations when tagged with constitutional reservation would end up with miniscule number of seats being available for open category meritorious students and would also end up in a ratio of hardly any seats being available to a large number of eligible meritorious open category population. This tilting of balance is not conducive to the public interest and also the legitimate expectations of the meritorious students from open category seeking entry into the portals of postgraduate medical education in the country. Dr KK Aggarwal National President IMA Dr RN Tandon Hony Secretary General IMA

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