Medical Council Registration pending: NEET PG aspirants anticipating year loss

Consequently, even though hundreds of MBBS students have graduated several months ago, they are unable to get Jammu Kashmir Medical Council (JKMC) Registration certificate, which is a mandatory document for the doctors to start practising or appear in the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Post Graduation (NEET-PG) counselling process.

Anticipating the loss of one whole year in the career, the new graduate doctors of J & K under the umbrella of the Indian Medical Association Junior Doctors Network (IMA-JDN) have already approached the State Council office and the State Health Department.

In a letter directed to Shri Vivek Bharadwaj, the Financial Commissioner and Additional Chief Secretary of Health and Medical Education Department, the doctors have raised the issue.

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Mentioning that the term of JKMC ended 6 months ago and it stands dissolved till date, the doctors stated, "Due to this MBBS graduates are facing lots of problems as they can not get their registrations done. As you know that the result of NEET PG 2021 has been announced and the counseling process will start very soon. Without this essential and mandatory document i.e. JKMC Registration certificate, one is not eligible to appear in this counseling and hence, his/her name will not be considered in the provisional merit list which in turn can lead to loss of 1 crucial academic year of the candidate (without any fault of his/her). It will ruin the career of the concerned candidates."

"The concerned MBBS graduates have continuously been highlighting this issue but nothing has been done in this case so far to resolve the matter. We, therefore, request you to kindly look into the matter and find a suitable solution before the commencement of NEET PG 2021 Counseling (as career of thousands of medicos is at stake) and save the crucial academic year of the concerned MBBS graduates," added the letter.

Meanwhile, during the meeting with Mr. Vivek Bhardwaj, he has reportedly assured the doctors of solving the issue at the earliest, Dr. Rakesh Koul, State Convener of IMA-JDN J&K informed Medical Dialogues.

"Although he hasn't given us any written assurance, he has verbally assured us that the issue would be resolved at the earliest and also told us that the Government has already suggested names for the State Medical Council," Dr. Rakesh said.

"However, as the counseling process for the NEET-PG can start any moment, the doctors are really anxious over the issue as failing to appearing in the counseling even after clearing the exam would cost them one more year in the career when the entire academic session is lagging behind due to the pandemic," he added.

Medical Dialogues had reported about this issue earlier as well when the delay in issuance of registration certificate was causing troubles to the newly graduate medicos as they were unable to get a job without the certificate. Besides, the intern doctors who had already started working were also not getting their stipend on time as the stipend release process was also getting delayed due to lag in providing them medical licenses.