Mental Health Concerns: Maha DMER Plans to Withdraw Rs 20 Lakh Seat Withdrawal Fees for Residents

Mumbai: Bringing good news to the postgraduate medical students, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) Maharashtra is planning to waive the Rs 20 lakh penalty imposed on resident doctors for withdrawing their seats due to mental health concerns.

Currently, the resident doctors are required to pay a penalty of Rs 20 lakh in case they leave their seats. Due to the heavy penalty, the doctors are forced to continue their work as resident doctors even if it raises their mental health concerns.

DMER is now planning to ask the State Government to waive the penalty after it took note of the mental health concerns among post-graduate medical students. 

The data from the Maharashtra State Medical Education Department reveals that nationally, Maharashtra ranked sixth with 85 postgraduate medical students dropping out in the past five years. Apart from this, the State also recorded 11 suicides among the PG medical students in the same period. This is the second highest in the country and in this respect, Maharashtra shares the second position with Gujarat.

While DMER is planning to waive seat withdrawal penalty fees, it also acknowledges the requirement of a proper system so that students cannot misuse these benefits.

Also Read: 100-120 hours a week duty, toxic work environment forcing young doctors to suicide: MARD writes to Governor

Commenting on the matter, a senior officer from DMER told Indian Express, "We acknowledge the mental health concerns among post-graduate medical students. We plan to propose eliminating the penalty for those choosing to quit for mental well-being. However, a robust system for implementation and certification is crucial to prevent potential misuse of these benefits."

The issue concerning the mental health crisis among the resident doctors was recently raised by the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) as well. Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the association recently approached the Governor of Maharastra in this regard and pointed out that 15 medical students committed suicide in the last 5 years out of which 11 were PG students. 

Addressing the issue of ongoing mental health crisis among the resident doctors of Maharashtra, the association pointed out several issues including issues like toxic work culture, unfathomable working hours etc. It also highlighted the necessity of forming a Grievance Redressal Committee, and relief in seat leaving penalty.

The residents also claimed that they routinely worked 100-120 hours per week with on-call duties stretching to 36 hours at times. They alleged that this inhumane work culture overburdens a Resident's mental state and leads to impulsive wrong decision-making when facing toxicity in their department.

MARD pointed out that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sent consolidated instructions to all states and union territories regarding the implementation of the Uniform Central Residency Scheme after the directives of the Supreme Court that clearly mentioned that the working hours of a Resident Doctor should not exceed 12 hours per day and the weekly working hours should not exceed 48 hours.

Taking cognizance of this problem regarding the extra workload of the doctors, MARD suggested setting up a State level Grievance Redressal Committee which will include the Members from Administration, Commissioner of Medical Education, Director of DMER, Central Mard, and representatives of all the Medical colleges of the state. 

The issue of seat leaving penalty was also raised by the association. Commenting on the matter, President of Central MARD, Abhijit Rajesh Helge had earlier alleged that resident doctors often choose to commit suicide rather than just leaving the course because of the existence of a strict 10 lakh rupees seat leaving penalty for seat lapses.

"At a time when a Resident is already under tremendous psychological pressure, a financial burden in the range of Rs 20 lakh rupees further encourages the unfortunate resident to consider a certain death which seems to be the easier choice. They are compelled to work round the clock under the threat of a career-ruining financial burden," he had mentioned.

Demanding respite from seat lapse penalty, the association had stated, "We urge the administration to take the decision to penalize candidates for leaving a PG seat in a case-to-case basis manner to prevent encouragement of Suicides. Any candidate who aspires to leave his/her PG seat due to a toxic work environment should undergo a Psychiatric evaluation based upon which if the candidate is found to be in a vulnerable mental state, then his/her penalty amount should be written off to prevent further misery."

Indian Express adds that a recent study from Solapur's Government Medical College revealed the heightened mental health struggles of MBBS students during the pandemic. As per the study, out of 619 participants, 57.83 per cent reported extremely severe anxiety, 16.63 per cent experienced extremely severe depression, and 10.98 per cent suffered from extremely severe stress.

Also Read: Toxic work environment forcing young doctors to suicide: MARD writes to Governor