Medical Students Submit Their Objections on Draft MBBS Internship Rules to NMC

In a letter directed to Chairman of NMC, the Apex Medical education regulatory body, the students have requested to remove the inclusion of AYUSH elective in the MBBS internship program.

Besides, the medicos have also demanded the inclusion of Family Medicine elective, raised the need for Uniform Stipend, and also sought clarity regarding the "externship" program.

The National Medical Commission issued the Draft Regulations for Rotational Compulsory Regulations, 2021 and had invited comments and suggestions from various stakeholders asking them to submit their responses before August 7th, 2021.

Recently, an NMC member and IMA National President-elect Dr. Sahajanand Prasad Singh had written to the NMC pointing out regarding the issue. Objecting to the inclusion of AYUSH elective, he had pointed out that "any ancillary inclusion not having any material bearing in regard to the expected outcome commensurate with the set-out goal and objective is bound to be superfluous in nature and irrelevant in character."

Apart from that, doctors associations including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) had also written to NMC regarding the matter.

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AYUSH Elective:

The Medical students in the letter directed to NMC had expressed its concern that exposure in another system of medicine for the one-week period is likely to pave the way to a "half-baked mixopath," and had mentioned that such inclusions would be "disastrous for the country".

Now, demanding that section 4.3(17) of AYUSH elective should be deleted, the IMA-MSN has also raised the same issue and has stated in their letter to NMC that "It will not be sensible for an Intern trained in modern Medicine to partake and practice a system of medicine which he has not learned in under graduation."

Family Medicine Elective:

Opining the Family Medicine elective to be the "need of the hour" the MBBS students have requested NMC to replace the AYUSH elective with the two-week Family Medicine elective along with Bioethics.

Uniform Stipend:

The MBBS students have also expressed the necessity of uniform stipend and have stated, "This revision in the regulations also adds extra confusion among young medical professionals as there is barely no mention about the stipend to be given."

Issue of Externship:

The letter mentioned that previously the MBBS students had the liberty to go to other medical colleges for getting hands-on experience of internship services aka "externship". "But this new revision barely mentions about the details of externship which again puts the young minds in jeopardy," stated the letter.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the issue, Prashanth S, National Convener of IMA-MSN said, "We met the President of UG Medical Education Board, Dr. Aruna V. Vanikar and UG Board member Dr. Vijayendra Kumar. We had a conversation with them and during that time we tried to express how the medical students felt regarding the new Internship guidelines."

"We also submitted a google form containing the response of around 10,000 students, who do not want the AYUSH elective and also support IMA-MSN in the four points that we have mentioned in our letter," he added.

"After going through all those things, Dr. Vanikar was convinced of what we had to represent. In fact, she also asked for our inputs on skills required by medical interns. Apart from the actual procedure, the MBBS interns need to do several clerical works as well. So, Madam has asked for our response regarding that as well," further mentioned Dr. Prashanth.

Also Read: 7 day AYUSH Training for MBBS Medicos NOT mandatory: Health minister informs Parliament