With Around 1000 seats vacant, Lowering of cutoff, stray vacancy round much needed for NEET SS 2021

New Delhi: With more than 1000 Super Specialty Seats vacant, lowering the cut-off for NEET SS 2021 and arranging for a stray vacancy round has become the need of the hour.

These vacant seats are not only from branches that are least sought after but hundreds of seats belonging to coveted branches such as DM Cardiology (DMCD) and DNBSS Cardiology (DCRD) and those in the super-specializations of Neurology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology even oncology that are also lying vacant.

Doctors have blamed the high cut-off percentile for the wastage of these seats and while writing to the authorities have been demanding a lowering of the cut-off percentile and a stray vacancy round for filling up the vacant seats.

National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Super Specialty (NEET-SS) is a centralized entrance test for doctors willing to obtain admission in Doctorate of Medicine (DM) Master of Chirurgie (MCh) courses in India and DNB SS courses in India.

Around 900 seats Vacant after Mop-Up:

As per the seat matrix published by the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC), a total number of 4,685 DM, MCh and DrDNB seats were available in the first round of NEET-SS 2021 counseling. Among these, there were 3,012 DM and MCh seats in 45 specialties and 1,673 DrDNB seats in 26 specialties.

These numbers came down to 1,030 vacant seats that were available for admission during the Mop-Up Round of NEET SS 2021 counselling. At that time, there were 612 DM and MCh seats in 28 specialties and 418 DNB SS seats in 20 specialties 

Although around 113 seats were filled up after the publication results for NEET SS 2021 Mop-Up Round, analysis of the difference suggests that approximately 900 Super Specialty seats are still lying vacant. 

CAndidates pointed out that indeed more seats have become vacant after the INI-SS admissions with candidates vacating these seats and Joining AIIMS

Also Read: 1,030 DM, MCh, DNB SS seats available for MCC NEET SS counselling mop-up round, Check out detailed seat matrix

More Vacant Seats due to INI-SS Admission:

With several candidates joining AIIMS after securing admission via INI-SS exam, the numbers is estimated that around 1000 super-specialty seats are still lying vacant. Speaking to Medical Dialogues in this regard, a NEET-SS candidate, Dr Mobeen said, "There are 130 seats in AIIMS INI-SS. If I am not wrong around 70-80 seats will be vacant when the candidates will resign their seats and join AIIMS. These seats we cannot seek anywhere. But, Candidates are approaching the court and by depositing their documents they are joining these seats. As a result of this, seats are getting vacant in several states. In Andhra Medical College, 1 seat in Neurology, 2 seats in Neuro Surgery and 2 seats in Cardiology are getting opened. We do not know the exact number of seats that are getting vacant in this process. As there are no more rounds of counseling left, these seats are likely to get wasted."

"So all we are asking to lower the cut-off and arrange for a stray vacancy round. Even if the stray vacancy round is held, the seats will only get filled up if the cut-off gets lowered. in 2019, a similar move was made by the government and as a result around 90 percent of the vacant seats were filled up. 

"It has been more than a month that we have written to the Government and the Government sent the matter to NMC for consideration. However, the NMC officials are not ready to lower the cut-off percentile. We right now we are talking to the other Ministries and we are trying to reach the PMO," he said.

Vacant Seats in Cardiology, Neurology, Gastroenterology:

One of the most surprising things to note is that prestigious seats such as DM and DNB Cardiology are also lying vacant because of the high cut-off. In the first round, there were 630 seats available in Cardiology. During the time of Mop-Up Round, around 207 seats were still vacant for Super Specialty Seats in Cardiology and even after the publication of results for the mop-up counselling, the number of vacant seats remained at around 200 seats.

This doctor blamed it primarily on the high cut-off. A Candidate explained to the Medical Dialogues team, " I appeared for both Pulmonology and Cardiology in the SS exam. But while i have gotten a seat in Pulmonology, i did not get a seat in Cardiology due to the high cut-off

When questioned if lowering the cut-off would result in comprising the merit, Dr Mooben explained, " This is not a percentage but percentile that we are asking to lower. The doctors appearing for this exam have around 10 years of experience and they are capable of specialized medical practice, so this entrance exam cannot be a standard to judge their merit. Even in Supreme Court, it has been held that lowering the cut-off percentile is not disregarding the merit as the cut-off percentile depends on how many people appeared for the exam."

Doctors have been demanding a reduction in the cutoff percentile of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Super Specialty Examination in order to fill up the seats that remained vacant after the completion of the counseling process. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that referring to hundreds of vacant seats in the Super Speciality courses, the doctors under the umbrella of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) had written to the Union Health Ministry.