Will Supreme Court's Intervention Finally Solve the Stipend Disparity of MBBS Interns? Doctors Hopeful for Verdict

New Delhi: Despite numerous protests and representations to the authorities, non-payment of stipend or disparity regarding the amount of stipend paid to the MBBS interns across the country remains one of the unsolved issues even today.

However, the Supreme Court bench recently took cognisance of the matter. Now the doctors are hopeful that the issue might finally get resolved and the intern doctors will get adequately paid for their hard work.

While considering a plea filed by the MBBS students of the Army College of Medical Sciences (ACMS), recently the Supreme Court the National Medical Commission's response to the claim alleging that 70 percent of medical colleges do not get paid any stipend or are paying the minimum stipend to doctors who are doing their MBBS internships.

Taking cognisance of the issue, the top court bench led by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud directed the NMC to file a report giving the details about this claim and also directed the Commission to informed what steps have been taken to ensure payment of stipend to them as per the NMC norms.

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Furzana S. Ali, the State General Secretary of Kerala IMA-MSN told Medical Dialogues, "The issue will get resolved once Supreme Court validates the hard work put in by the house surgeons and considers their sleepless nights, efforts, and emotional stress they are undergoing."

"It is equally important to consider all house surgeons irrespective of their colleges that is whether they are a govt college or private college House Surgeon. The fight will go on unless the issue will be resolved by the court by paying equally and adequately and thus respecting every budding doctor," she further added.

In around 19 private medical colleges across Kerala, the MBBS interns are getting a stipend ranging from Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. The effective amount of stipend gets further reduced since the students are required to pay a huge amount of money for their accommodation, sources earlier informed Medical Dialogues.

Also Read: MBBS interns in Kerala upset with meagre stipend of Rs 4,000 to Rs 10,000, Health Activists seek redraft of NMC CRMI regulations

When asked about this matter, Dr. Furzana S. Ali informed that while the MBBS Interns at the Government Medical Colleges get Rs 25,000 as monthly stipend, interns belonging to several private medical colleges do not get any stipend at all.

Opining that the matter needs to be addressed at the earliest, Dr. Karan Juneja, National Standing Committee member of IMA JDN told Medical Dialogues, "It is a matter of great concern and it is very much necessary that it gets addressed by the concerned authorities. Now that the Supreme Court has taken note of the issue, maybe a solution will be offered for the MBBS Interns who do not get paid any stipend or receive a very meagre amount for their service."

Medical Dialogues had been reporting about the issue of stipend disparity faced by MBBS interns along with their demands for a Uniform Stipend Policy across the country. Private medical college students across the country have been continuously complaining about not getting stipends by their parent institutes.

The NMC norms state that all the intern doctors 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.

After the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) took cognisance of the issue and directed the NMC to conduct a survey in this regard, the Commission announced its decision to conduct a survey among the students enrolled in the self-financed/private medical colleges to ascertain the amount of stipend paid to the UG/PG students. 

NHRC took cognisance of the matter after a student of Malabar Medical College, Kozhikode filed a complaint and alleged that the House Surgeons are paid inadequate stipend, in violation of Government order.

Also Read: NMC to conduct survey on medical college stipends, here is how MBBS, PG medicos can participate

In compliance with the NHRC's directions, NMC created a Google form and asked all the UG students enrolled in MBBS internship to fill it up. Apart from the UG MBBS Interns, the PG medical students have also been requested to fill up the form by May 7, 2023.

Responding to a Right to Information (RTI) application filed by Kannur-based Health Activist Dr. Babu KV, NMC had earlier revealed that around 28,000 MBBS Interns and Postgraduate medical students in self-financed medical colleges participated in the NMC survey.

Dr. Babu, who has been raising the issue for a long time and filed several RTI applications in this regard, also expressed his hope that the matter might get resolved with the Apex Court's interference.

He referred to the fact that NMC has been directed to submit information regarding the amount of stipend paid to the MBBS interns and further told Medical Dialogues, "2019 onwards both the BOG & the NMC have got any number of opportunities to bring parity regarding the stipend of MBBS interns. They are either reluctant or dragging the issue, in spite of interventions from the medical profession & NHRC, practically helping the private medical college management. Now I am hopeful that NMC will have to act."

Commenting on the matter, Dr. Dhruv Chauhan, Health activist and National Zonal Coordinator of IMA MSN added, "NMC has Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship) Regulations which means they will have to pay stipend to the MBBS interns. Although most of the govt colleges pay (not on time though) yet majority of private colleges fail to do so and numerous times there have been protests for the same. But in response, medical students are threatened mostly that they will face action if they protest. So they couldn’t raise their voices all the time.

"But this time with the ACMS students coming forward this issue has reached SC. Hope necessary action is taken," he added.