Will NEET PG 2025 Get Postponed? Doctors Concerned as NEET PG 2024 Counselling Yet To Conclude

New Delhi: Pointing out that the counselling for the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) 2024 exam has still not been concluded, doctors have expressed their concern over the NEET PG 2025 exam being conducted on the scheduled date.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the National Board of Examinations (NBE) further reduced the qualifying percentile for PG medical admissions 2024-2025 academic year to the 5th percentile for all categories. Thereafter the States across the country started announcing dates for the stray vacancy round.

Hence, the counselling process for the PG medical admissions has not been concluded yet. Referring to this, the doctors expressed their concern over the schedule of the NEET PG 2025 as well.

The National Medical Commission (NMC) had previously announced that the NEET PG 2025 exam would be tentatively held on 16th June 2025 and the internship completion deadline would be 31st July 2025.

Also Read: NEET PG 2022 Postponed by 6-8 weeks

However, taking to social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Health Activist Dr Dhruv Chauhan, who is also a National Council member of Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN) wrote, "NEET PG 2025 dates might shift soon if they continue to extend the counselling for stray rounds by reducing percentile."

Speaking to Medical Dialogues, Dr. Dhruv Chauhan told Medical Dialogues, "Counselling Process is still undergoing and an expected special stray round might come up as they have recently reduced the percentile to 5 for a reason. This same trend followed in previous year and the gap between the exam and the date of conducting the exam has to be specific."

Several members from the medical fraternity agreed with his statement as they highlighted the trend of shifting NEET exam and counselling dates over the last few years.

"Why has it become a trend to shift the dates of NEET exams and their counselling dates again and again since the past few years? It is so unprofessional and a huge inconvenience to lakhs of students," wrote a doctor.

Responding to Dr Chauhan's X post, one user highlighted that such type of mismanagement in conducting the exam is not seen outside of India. "It's 2025 and NBE still didn't adjust the exam timeline since COVID I dare anyone show me one exam outside India with such stupid management," he wrote.

Some of the doctors, who have already appeared in NEET PG exam addressed the issue and said, "Juniors thinking they're going to give neet pg 2025 on 15th june 2025."

Meanwhile, the students have started blaming the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) and especially the Board's ability to conduct such an exam.

These speculations are being made by the doctors especially considering the history of NEET PG exam date getting changed over the past few years. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year, NEET PG 2024 exam was initially scheduled to be held on July 7, 2024. However, later it was preponed to June 23.

Also Read: Breaking News: NEET PG postponed at the last minute, fresh dates to be announced

Later, in an unexpected turn of events, NEET-PG 2024 exam was postponed just 12 hours before it was scheduled to take place. The Union Health Ministry took this decision as a precautionary measure amid the ongoing controversies concerning the NEET exam as well as the UGC NET exam.

Even though there was no clarity regarding the exact reason for the postponement of the exam, media reports had suggested that the exam was cancelled as a "precautionary" measure because of clear intelligence inputs indicating possible "impersonation" or manipulation attempts in the computer-based test.

Ultimately, the entrance exam for PG medical courses was held on August 11, 2024. However, the counselling process for the exam has not been concluded even after six months of the NEET PG 2024 exam date.

Back in 2022 also, the Union Health Ministry had decided to postpone the NEET PG exam by 6-8 weeks after receiving lots of representations requesting to delay the exam. Previously, the exam was scheduled to take place on March 12. However, ultimately, the exam was held on 21st May, 2022.

Considering these earlier trends, the doctors are now highlighting the possibility of the exam getting delayed this year also. Commenting on the matter, Dr. Rohan Krishnan, a Health activist and the Chief Patron of FAIMA Doctors' Association told Medical Dialogues, "Well I think that it might be postponed. Till now there has been no official notification regarding the date of examination and filling of the form of NEET 2025. So, it is very sad that once again the academic calendar might be delayed. I think that it is something that the government needs to think upon because every year this seems to be continuing when it comes to NEET PG. Since the time of COVID, we are seeing every time there is some kind of delay in the NEET PG examination and it is getting postponed in the last time period. So, it is better to be prepared from before itself and I hope that the National Testing agency and the National Board of Examinations are going the needful so that it need not be postponed."

Meanwhile, the National Co-Convenor of IMA-JDN, Dr. Karan Juneja advised the candidates to avoid any such rumours of postponement. He told Medical Dialogues, "Let's hope for the best. Government must stick to the timeline."

Also Read: NEET PG 2024, Counselling Delay: Are We Moving Towards Regularisation of PG Batches?