Ahmedabad: Accusing the State Health Department of not fulfilling their promise of a 40 percent stipend hike, around 1,200 resident doctors belonging to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital in Gujarat went on an indefinite strike on Monday demanding a hike in stipend.

Services were affected despite authorities making alternate arrangements in view of the strike, with patients and kin complaining of long wait at the Aswara-based facility, which is attached to BJ Medical College and is the largest in the state, PTI has reported. 

As per resident doctors, they will stay away from all duties, including trauma care, emergency and outpatient department (OPD) services as part of the strike until an amicable solution is found.

The resident doctors initiated the strike two days after the Gujarat Government ordered an approximately 20% stipend hike for the interns and resident doctors in all streams. As per the Government Order, this 20% stipend hike will have retrospective effect from April 1, 2024. However, the junior doctors are demanding a 40% stipend hike instead of the 20% granted by the State.

Also Read: Over 4,000 Karnataka Doctors On Strike Demanding Stipend Hike

As per the latest media report by Indian Express, none of the other junior doctors’ association across 18 different medical colleges have joined the strike. Meanwhile issuing a statement on Sunday described the demands “unjustified” and mentioned that Gujarat is a “leader” in paying stipends to doctors.

Writing to the authorities on Sunday, the JDA had mentioned that they will initiate cease work after losing trust in the Government. “We have lost trust in the government. Hence we, all the students of BJ Medical College have been forced to stay away from all our duties on the path shown by Gandhi, from September 2, 2024 (Monday),” the doctors had mentioned.

In the letter, the JDA further pointed out that they had been making representations to the Government for the past six months. According to the representations by the doctors, the stopend of junior doctors get increased by 40% every three months. However, last this stipend increase was done on April 1, 2021. Thereafter, more than 3 years have passed but the doctors are still waiting for the 40% stipend hike. Citing this as the reason, the junior doctors said that their demand was for an increase of 40% in the stipend from April 1 onwards.

“In a meeting with the Health Minister on July 9, 2024, we were assured of a 40% increase in stipend. So the movement was postponed by trusting the democratic government. After 10 to 12 consecutive visits and the last six months of hard work and full faith in the Govt, (it) gave only an unsatisfactory increase of 20%,” stated their letter.

“The state health department had agreed to increasing stipend by 40 per cent every three years. This hike was supposed to come into effect from April 1. It was, however, not implemented till July after which we met state health minister Rushikesh Patel. We had postponed our stir then after getting an assurance about its implementation,” said Dr Dhaval Gameti, president of the Junior Doctors’ Association of BJ Medical College.

“We have been forced to go on an indefinite strike now because we have learnt the state government has only given a 20 per cent hike, which is half of what was promised. Moreover, the state government has now said the stipend will be revised every five years instead of three years. This is not acceptable as the government has gone back on its promise,” Gameti claimed.

PTI has reported that the strike has caused hardships to people, with a person saying he had got his kin from Rajkot for jaundice treatment but was told about the unavailability of doctors. “We will have to come another day after waiting in the corridors for several hours,” the kin said.

Speaking about the situation, Civil Hospital Additional Medical Superintendent Rajnish Patel said, “The leaves of all medical and non-medical staff has been cancelled. We have made adjustments in duty allocation to attend patients. We have called in doctors from other district hospitals to compensate for the shortfall. At present, 130 medical officers are on duty.”

In a statement, state Health Minister Rushikesh Patel criticised resident doctors for demanding a 40 per cent hike. “From September 1, we have decided to give a 20 per cent hike. Stipend paid to resident doctors in Gujarat is among the highest in the country. With this hike, doctors will now get nearly Rs 1.30 lakh per month as stipend. In many states, stipend ranges between Rs 40,000 to Rs 70,000 per month. Moreover, this stipend is totally tax free,” Patel said.

Also Read: 25 percent Stipend Hike for Resident Doctors In Karnataka

New Delhi: Although there is still no clarity regarding the National Exit Test (NExT) exam, when and how it may be conducted, the recently published Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum 2024 indicated that the proposed common exit test may be held in March 2029 for the MBBS students who are getting admitted during the academic year 2024-2025.

As per the academic calendar for admission batch 2024-2025, the proposed NExT Step 1 may be conducted for the newly admitted students in March 2029 while the proposed NExT Step 2 for these students will be held after the completion of their internship i.e. March 2030.

Specifying the timeline of conducting the University Examinations, the CBME 2024 guidelines mentioned that the National Exit Test (NExT) shall be held as per the NExT Regulations and the Final Professional examination shall be held “at the end of 17th / 18th month of that training, in the subjects of General Medicine, General Surgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics, and allied subjects as per NExT Regulations.”

Apart from the academic calendar for the 2024-2025 MBBS batch, the CBME 2024 guidelines also includes a generic calendar for the MBBS students. As per this generic proposed academic calendar from admission batch 2025-2026 onwards, the proposed NExT Step 1 will be held at the end of 18th month of the Phase III Part II training i.e. in February.

Similarly, the proposed generic calendar, applicable for admission batch 2025-2026 onwards, states that the proposed NExT Step 2 will be held at the end of mandatory internship i.e. one year after conducting the NExT Step 1 exam- in February.

Earlier this year, NMC made the matter of the NExT examination open to all the stakeholders. The Commission asked all the stakeholders to submit their feedback on the NMC National Exit Test Regulations, 2023 by 07.02.2024. Later, the deadline was further extended by the Commission till 17.02.2024.

NExT Controversy: 

The issue of the NExT exam has been making waves in the medical fraternity ever since its first announcement. Although last year NMC released the NExT regulations and announced conducting the exam for the 2019 MBBS batch, it was ultimately put on hold for an indefinite time.

NMC NExT Regulations, 2023, were published in the official Gazette on June 28, 2023, and a mock test for the NExT exam was scheduled to be held on July 28 2023 by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

However, opposing the decision to conduct the NExT exam for the 2019 batch, the students and doctors termed it to be a violation of the NMC Act, 2019. Referring to the 2019 Act, the doctors pointed out that the 2019 MBBS batch started on August 1, 2019, i.e. the batch started before the publication of the NMC Act 2019. Therefore, the doctors argued that conducting NExT for the 2019 batch would be a violation of the NMC Act 2019.

Meanwhile, the Union Health Ministry intervened and NMC deferred the NExT examination until further notice from the Ministry. Thereafter, the Union Health Ministry has constituted a seven-member committee to look into the preparedness of States and medical colleges for the implementation of the exam for the final year MBBS students of the 2020 batch.

Amidst the debate and uncertainty regarding the conduct of the NExT exam, NMC made the issue open to all the stakeholders. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the stakeholders were asked to submit their opinion on whether the NExT exam should replace the conventional MBBS final year exam, held separately in addition to the MBBS final year exam, or be conducted in any other manner.

Further, the stakeholders were asked to share their opinions on various aspects such as the time manner, exam pattern, way of conducting exam, syllabus of NExt and several other issues.

Also Read: NEXT Guidelines May be Out Soon, Deliberations Under Process: NMC Official

New Delhi: Laying down the latest guidelines for the MBBS course, the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) has now published the final Competency-Based Medical Education Regulations 2024.

These new guidelines include objectives of the Indian Graduate Medical Training Programme, National Goals with respect to Indian Medical Graduates, Institutional Goals, Goals for the Learner, the Competency-Based Training Programme for Indian Medical Graduates, the roles of leader and member of the healthcare team, system and the role of the communicator with patients, families, colleagues and community, the role of lifelong learner committed to continuous improvement of skills and knowledge, and of a professional who is committed to excellence, is ethical, responsive and accountable to patients, the profession and community etc.

For more information, click on the link below:

MBBS Curriculum: NMC Releases CBME Guidelines 2024, Details

New Delhi: While the NEET counselling is being conducted in various states, a petition has been filed in the Supreme Court seeking a review of its order that rejected the holding of NEET 2024 afresh.

The review plea filed by Kajal Kumari has sought reconsideration of the apex court order, as per a recent report by PTI.

The top court in its August 2 order had said there was no sufficient material on record at present to indicate a systemic leak or malpractice compromising the integrity of the examination.

Medical Dialogues had reported that pronouncing its detailed order on the pleas concerning the National Eligibility-and-Entrance Test Undergraduate (NEET-UG) examination, the Supreme Court said that it did not cancel the UG medical entrance examination amid concerns of the paper leak because there was no systemic breach of its sanctity.

The apex court had expanded the remit of the Centre-appointed panel headed by former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chief K Radhakrishnan constituted to review the functioning of the National Testing Agency (NTA), which holds the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (Undergraduate) (NEET-UG), and recommend examination reforms.

The court had said since the remit of the panel has been expanded, the committee would submit its report by September 30 on various measures to rectify deficiencies in the examination system.

The top court had directed the NTA to ensure that all concerns highlighted by the court in its judgment are addressed and requested the seven-member committee to keep these issues in mind while making its recommendations.

Over 2.3 million students took the NEET-UG 2024 held on May 5 for admissions to MBBS, BDS, AYUSH and other related courses.

Also Read:No Systemic Breach in NEET 2024! says Supreme Court, Slams NTA for ‘Flip-flops’ in Exam