AIIMS Raipur Student Loses MD Emergency Medicine Seat after Accident, Doctors urge authorities to reconsider decision

Raipur: Doctors are upset with the decision of AIIMS Raipur administration cancelling the Postgraduate medical admission of a doctor after he became disabled due to an accident.

Writing to the authorities, the Resident Doctors' Association (RDA) of AIIMS Bhopal, where the doctor pursued his MBBS, have urged to consider the case sympathetically and offer him some justice on humanitarian grounds.

"We believe that this decision to remove a doctor from the institute on the basis of an injury sustained after joining the course is unfair and unjust," mentioned the RDA of AIIMS Bhopal.

The concerned Dr. Ashwini Singh pursue his MBBS from AIIMS Bhopal back in 2021. Following this, he cleared the NEET PG examination and joined the PG medical course in MD Emergency Medicine at AIIMS Raipur under the UR category in January 2022.

Unfortunately, while undergoing his PG medical residency, the doctor met with an accident in August 2022 and sustained a major injury to his right arm. Following this, he got admitted to the hospital and during the course of hospital stay, his right shoulder disarticulation had been done. Afterward, Dr. Ashwini completed the prosthetic rehabilitation program in the middle of January 2023 and submitted his joining request to the Dean's office of AIIMS Raipur.

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Meanwhile, AIIMS Raipur set up an institutional committee to consider if Dr. Ashwini were able to continue his studies. However, the committee found his to be unfit for continuing the MD Emergency Medicine program due to his disability.

The doctor was also not offered any option to change his branch of PG specialisation, to enroll for a PhD/MPH without an entrance examination, or to appoint him to the post of General Duty Medical Officer at AIIMS Raipur. The authorities struck off his name from the college roll and asked him to collect his documents. 

Disheartened by the decision of the committee, the Resident Doctors from AIIMS Bhopal have now written to the concerned authorities and urged their assistance in this regard.

"Dr. Ashwini has requested our help in pleading his case, and we are writing to you for your assistance in this matter. We urge you to consider Dr. Ashwini's case sympathetically and hope possible justice be offered to him on humanitarian grounds and help him fulfill his desire to serve the patients of this country," read the letter.

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Ramesh Gadwala, the President of RDA AIIMS Bhopal told Medical Dialogues, "AIIMS Raipur does not have any established rule and regulations to allow transfer of such residents who became disabled after joining the course. We are not aware of any such law that makes an Institute remove a doctor from residency because he became disabled after meeting with an accident. He may not be able to continue the particular course, in which he got enrolled, but other PG courses have to be considered. There must be some provision so that he can continue providing service to the patients in some other form. 

"We have written to the AIIMS Raipur administration to reconsider him for any other course of residency or any other post," he added.

Expressing its solidarity with Dr. Ashwini, the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) has termed the incident as "injustice" and mentioned in a Tweet, "This is totally an Injustice to a Doctor whose name was stuck off from college because he met an accident & declared unfit by @AIIMSRaipur admin. Dr Ashwani worked hard to get MBBS seat in @AIIMSBhopal & later MD Seat in @AIIMSRaipur is suffering without his mistake."

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