No stipend as per NMC norms: Maharashtra medical college interns on strike

Latur: Raising their voice against the practice of non-payment of stipend, the MBBS Intern doctors belonging to Maharashtra based MIMSR Medical College & YCR Hospital have withdrawn their services from all Outpatient Department (OPDs), all ward work, departmental work and other services.

Submitting their Letter of Intimation to the Dean of the Institute, the Intern Doctors of 2017 batch referred to the NMC CRMI Guidelines- 2021, published on 18th November, 2021, Regulation 3 of Schedule IV of which mentions that "All Interns shall be paid as fixed by the appropriate fee fixation authority applicable to the institution/University/State."

Reminding that the Intern doctors are an integral part of the health facilities, the doctors in their letter mentioned, "Interns are strong working force available to any medical college & attached hospitals. We. Intern doctors, are integral part of hospital & it's functioning. We have made sincere appeals regarding granting us stipend according to NMC CRMI Guidelines- 2021."

The doctors pointed out that several other private medical colleges under the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) had not been giving any stipend until last year. However, all those colleges have now started granting stipend and other benefits to their interns.

As per the doctors, several private medical colleges in the State such as K.J Somaiya MC, Vasantrao Pawar Medical College, PDMMC, Amravati, SMBT Medical College, Terna Medical College, Vedanta medical college, Vikhe Patil Medical College, ACPM Dhule pay their interns stipend amount ranging from Rs 3000 to Rs 11000.

Also Read: Uniform Stipend for MBBS Interns: Health Ministry directs NMC for necessary action on RTI

Whereas colleges such as Pune based Kashibai Navale Medical College, ACPM Dhule have made the hostel free for the Intern doctors. Several other medical colleges such as JIJU's Badnapur, PIMS, Sangli, Ashwini Rural Medical College have assured to pay stipend to their Intern doctors.

Latur based MIMSR Medical College is one of the very few medical colleges in the State that does not give any stipend to its intern doctors.

Demanding Justice, the Interns doctors mentioned in the letter that they have been requesting the same for a long time. The letter stated, "It's been made more than 1 month that we have made multiple requests, official appeals, and have protested silently but our pleas have been unheard & unfruitful."

Therefore, announcing its decision of withdrawing service from OPDs, Wards, Departments and Other Services from July 18, the doctors in their letter mentioned, "So, we interns will be withdrawing our services from OPDs, Wards, departments, & other services from 18/07/2022, 9 am until the written assurance or confirmation of fulfillment of our demand is given."

"We are all standing in unity for our right & we hope that the requisite action will be taken by the concerned authorities and the justice will be provided to us," further read the letter signed by around 136 Intern doctors of MIMSR Medical College.

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. However, nothing has been done yet by the apex medical regulator to solve this issue.

Meanwhile, last year, 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.

Also Read: NMC cannot trace MCI notice on Uniform Stipend issued 3 years ago: RTI