NEET PG 2023 postponement: Doctors protest at Jantar Mantar

New Delhi: Escalating their demand for NEET PG 2023 postponement, the doctors under the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) staged a protest at Jantar Mantar in Delhi today.

The candidates have been pushing for an extension in the NEET PG 2023 exam by two to three weeks to reduce the gap between the result declaration and the counselling process.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that FAIMA had written to the Union Health Minister and pointed out that around 10,000 NEET PG aspirants were ineligible for appearing in the exam. The association urged the authorities for postponing the exam by 2-3 months and reconsider the eligibility criteria.

Thereafter, taking note of the fact that thousands of candidates were ineligible to appear in the examination, NBE had extended the Internship Deadline to June 30, 2023.

Even after the postponement of the exam, several thousands of candidates remained ineligible for the exam. In Telangana alone, altogether 3000 students remained ineligible since the Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) extended the internship completion date of MBBS students till August 11. Kakatiya Medical College (KMC) alone has about 200 interns who are now ineligible for writing the PG medical entrance test.

On January 24, 2023, taking up the issue of such candidates, FAIMA had written to the Union Health Minister. "Every year lakhs of post MBBS doctors appear in this exam chasing their dream. Each Medical Specialist doctors add to the strength of the ground doctor which helps the patient & society in their best possible ways they could they can and also who plays a significant role in providing strength to existing health care system of this country which has also been proved during the Covid Pandemic."

However, seeing no resolution being provided by the concerned authorities on the matter, the FAIMA had earlier launched a Twitter storm and called for a protest at Jantar Mantar today.

The representatives of FAIMA from Dr Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) joined the protest.

"At present with the eligibility bar for interns is June 30 and exam date on March 5, there is a large gap between the counselling and the examination date, this time could be utilised by the students to study for the examination and pursue their dream subject," said doctors' association FAIMA.

"We also want to convey that this is the year where we are adjusting with the delays of Covid Pandemic in which health care sector played a major role. Henceforth, we request the government to postpone NEET PG 2023 with immediate effect and allow maximum interns to take part in the examination system," Dr Manish Jangra, Chief Advisor of FAIMA stated while speaking to IANS.