DNB doctors at ESIC institutes getting less stipend than MD, MS! Matter in Supreme Court

New Delhi: Considering a plea over the non-payment of emoluments to the resident doctors pursuing PG diploma courses across Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospitals and medical colleges, the Supreme Court has recently issued a notice in the matter.

Seeking their response to the plea, the apex court bench of Justices Sudhanshu Dhulia and Ahsanuddin Amanullah issued notice to the Centre and the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBE), the director general of ESIC and ESIC hospitals in Delhi, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat. 

According to PTI, the petition, which also raised the issue of disparities in the stipends, said the aggrieved doctors include those enrolled in a post-MBBS diploma, Diplomate of National Board (DNB), post-diploma DNB and Doctorate of National Board (DrNB).

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The petition, filed by advocate Tanvi Dubey, said the doctors challenged the “unjust and arbitrary act” of discrimination between the post-graduate diploma resident doctors and doctorate of medicine (MD) and master of surgery (MS) students at ESIC colleges and hospitals.

“The usual expenses of the DNB candidates are almost similar to that of MD/MS or any other candidates. However, it is appalling to note that the DNB candidates are not getting any kind of allowances unlike the MD/MS candidates,” the petition said.

The plea said doctors were aggrieved by the arbitrary and unjust actions of the respondents due to the payment of a lower stipend amount without allowances.

The respondents in the matter are the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment, National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, the director general of ESIC and ESIC hospitals in Delhi, Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana and Gujarat.

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Earlier, on the matter of equivalence between the DNB and MD, MS doctors, the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) urged the National Medical Commission (NMC) to define in the TEQ 2024 Regulations regarding the minimum bed requirement for single-speciality hospitals to consider the DNB graduates from such institutes as equal to MD/MS degree holders in faculty recruitments.

Submitting its suggestions on the recently released Draft TEQ 2024 Regulations, the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) referred to the Draft that says that DNB Broad speciality and super speciality qualifications can be considered equivalent to MD/MS and DM/M.Ch if such DNB degrees are granted after training in a Medical Institute with attached hospital or a hospital having 500 or more beds.

In this regard, the association suggested that to consider DNB Broad speciality and super speciality qualifications equivalent to MD/MS and DM/M.Ch, the bed requirement should be 300 in the case of a multi-speciality hospital or one hundred or more beds in the case of any particular single-speciality hospital. While submitting its suggestions on the Draft, the association also submitted compiled data of DNB institutes with more than 100 beds in a single speciality.