NMC to conduct survey on medical college stipends, here is how MBBS, PG medicos can participate

New Delhi: Through a recent notice, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has announced its decision to conduct a survey among the undergraduate and postgraduate medical students of self-financed medical colleges across the country to ascertain the amount of stipend that is paid to them.

The Apex medical education regulatory body NMC has taken this decision to comply with the directions issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in this regard.

Referring to this, the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of NMC mentioned in the recent notice dated April 27, 2023, "As per the directions of National Human Rights Commission, the National Medical Commission is conducting a survey among students studying in all Self Financed/ Private Medical Colleges all over the country to ascertain the amount of stipend paid to UG/PG students."

In compliance of the NHRC's decision NMC has created a Google form asked all the UG students enrolled in MBBS internship to fill it up. Apart from the UG MBBS Interns, the PG medical students have also been requested to fill up the form within May 7, 2023.

Promising to maintain the name and details of the participants confidential, Aujender Singh, Deputy Secretary of PGMEB further stated in the notice, "It is assured that the identity of all those who will participate in the survey will be kept confidential and will not be disclosed to anyone."

In the google form, the link of which has been attached with the NMC notice, the Commission has mentioned, "This survey is being conducted in compliance of National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) order dated 24.02.2023 in case no. 490/11/8/2021, communicated to NMC vide letter dated 07.03.2023 with the objective to know the stipend being paid to UG and PG students in the Self Financed/Private Medical Colleges all over the Country and to ascertain that stipend is being paid as per the regulatory provision prescribed by NMC."

There are three sections in the Google form, where the Commission has sought the details of students including their name, email ID, contact number, name of medical college, name of the state where the college is located, details about their educational designation as students (UG/PG) etc.

NMC has also sought to know if the students are being paid any stipend at their respective medical colleges along with their comments on the matter.

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Section 1 which is introductory is to be filled by all students. Section A-I & A-II is to be filled only by UG students doing their internship and Section B-I & B-II is to be filled only by PG students. Section C is optional and one can submit comments related to stipend in not more than 50 words.

"Names and other details of the student who filled up the google form will be kept confidential and will not be shared with anyone including the management of the concerned medical college. It will hardly take 2-3 minutes to fill up this survey form. Therefore, All the UG Interns and PG Medical students in Self financed/Private Medical Colleges can fill up the form without any fear," states the Google Form by NMC.

Medical Dialogues had been reporting about the issue of stipend disparity and the continuous demands for a Uniform Stipend Policy across India. Even though the erstwhile MCI had introduced the amendments, they could not materialized because MCI got replaced by the National Medical Commission (NMC).

Following this, the demands for a uniform stipend policy has been raised by doctors time and again and the MBBS students belonging to private institutes also continued complaining of not getting stipend by their parent institutes.

Back in 2021, the UG Medical Education Board of NMC had released the Draft Regulations For Rotational Compulsory Regulations, 2021. Regarding stipend, the Draft mentioned that All Interns shall be paid stipend as fixed by the appropriate fee fixation authority applicable to the Institution/university/ state.

Therefore, the chances of the Interns doctors getting stipend for their service largely depends upon their concerned parent institutes. In the case of PG medical students also, the decision regarding stipend is taken by the concerned college authorities and on several occasions, it has been alleged that the colleges create dummy accounts in the name of the PG medical students to show that they are being paid stipend.

Until now, the apex medical commission has not done anything to solve the issues of stipend faced by the private medical college students. However, complying with the directions issued by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), NMC has now decided to conduct a survey in this regard.

To view the NMC notice, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/nmc-notice-private-medical-college-stipend-208463.pdf

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