Less Attendance, clinical Exposure: 2300 Kerala MBBS medicos reach HC for exam postponement

Previously a group of medicos approached the court demanding the same. However, their petition was rejected considering that the problem was faced by only a few. This time a huge number of petitions have been filed in the Kerala High Court against the exam schedule for the students under the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS).

Advocates N N Sugunabalan, Tittu Jose Chakkanad, and Keerthi Muralidharan will be presenting the case of the petitioners. The petitioners claimed that they are in a similar situation to the students from China who had to rely on online medical classes without any clinical experience. During the pandemic, the out-patient, in-patient, and even many other services were at a standstill. The hospitals, both government and private, were only receiving Covid patients and all elective procedures were canceled.

The petitioners stated that they are aware of the limitations but the university can at least defer the examinations by two months to give them the required time needed to gather the clinical exposure. One of the students told The New Indian Express, " As per the university syllabus prescribed by the National Medical Council (NMC) and the Medical Council of India (MCI), a final-year MBBS student has to complete 792 hours of clinical classes. However, due to the pandemic that saw the students getting confined to their homes and attending online classes, this stipulation couldn't be met."

Another student told the daily, " Our physical classes began only in August last year and the KUHS wants to conduct the examinations from March 31. The maximum hours that we managed to clock was around 500. We never got to examine patients or go on rounds with the specialists dealing with complicated cases. In effect, we can be deemed as medical students who have no idea about many procedures or diseases. So, if we are forced to write the final-year examinations at this juncture, it will be tough for us to meet the requirements mentioned by the NMC for getting the medical practitioner's license and admission to PG courses."

The petitioners pointed out that as they will be responsible for providing services at different primary health care and family clinics, it is essential for them to have an elaborate knowledge of the medicine and it will be unfair to the patients seeking their consultation if they do not gain clinical exposure before treating them. While addressing the issue that the university is holding the exams in line with Karnataka and Gujarat University, they stated that the pandemic has hit the state two months later.

" Our situation is very much similar to Telangana where the examinations have been postponed. If Telangana university can hold the examinations two months late, why can't KUHS? The varsity is citing NEET as an excuse. However, it should be noted that NEET too has been postponed taking into consideration Telangana's request," said the student.

The students also claimed that while the Board of Studies is in favor of postponing the examinations but the vice-chancellor seems to be unwilling to do so, colleges had urged the VC to reconsider the examination date. Commenting on the issue, KUHS Vice-Chancellor Dr. Mohanan Kunnummal told TNIE, "The university is acting as per the direction of the NMC and also based on the HC ruling on a petition filed by around 35 students. The NMC has directed the completion of the examinations by March-end.

"However, a group of students had petitioned the HC seeking postponement of the examinations, which was denied by the court. The court had set the date for starting the examinations as March 31. As for the students who are not ready for the examinations, the court had directed the varsity to allow them to appear after six months. Also, the varsity was directed to consider this as their first appearance and no fee was to be sourced from them," he said.