Health Bulletin 05/ December/ 2024

Justifying the requirement of yearly inspection of medical colleges by the National Medical Commission (NMC), the Union Minister of State for Health Smt Anupriya Patel informed the Rajya Sabha recently that the Apex Medical Commission is not considering any proposal to implement a multi-year approval system for medical colleges.

The issue of yearly inspection was raised in the Parliament by Shri Vivek K Tankha, who sought to know the rationale behind the policy requiring medical colleges to seek annual renewal of permission to admit students and whether the Ministry considers this policy fair and non-arbitrary, given that this annual permission impacts the stability of medical institutes and limits colleges to single-year approvals.

Allegations of ragging have emerged from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Raipur, where a group of second-year MBBS students accused their seniors of subjecting them to ragging. The student reported being forced to stand until 3 a.m with some girls falling unconscious due to exhaustion.

The students from the 2023 batch complained that the seniors allegedly harassed them. They claimed that the seniors called them at midnight and locked them in a room taking away their mobile phones. Further, they claimed being forced to march on the basketball ground wearing only t-shirts in the cold.

In a tragic incident, an MBBS student committed suicide by jumping from the hostel roof at BR Ambedkar Medical College in Udaipur. The deceased student has been identified as a second-year MBBS student.

According to IANS report, Students informed the police that the medico was studying till 2:30 in the night in his room. Officials said that he jumped around three o'clock from the sixth floor of the hostel.

Taking disciplinary action against 7 second-year MBBS students for ragging their junior, the Dr YS Parmar Medical College in Nahan recently suspended them for three months and fined Rs 75,000 each. The accused students have been barred from participating in cultural, sports, or other regional, national, or international activities for one year.

An investigation by the anti-ragging committee confirmed that the accused seniors from the 2023 batch allegedly misbehaved and harassed the junior students on the campus. They forced the juniors to stand for extended periods and even used foul language.