Health Bulletin 20/ January/ 2025 - Video

The Orissa High Court recently dismissed a plea filed by an MBBS aspirant, who sought a compensation for being denied an MBBS seat at a government medical college due to an alleged technical glitch on the web portal for counselling.

After appearing in the NEET UG 2022 exam, the petitioner secured All-India Rank of 16,663, Category rank of 7185 and All State Rank of 599. His grievance was that he was prevented from participating in the All-India Quota (AIQ) Mop-up and Stray Vacancy Rounds of counselling.

A recent audit by the Nagpur Municipal Corporation’s (NMC) fire and emergency services department revealed that 30% of both the government and private hospitals have failed to comply with fire safety protocols.

Out of the 504 hospitals registered in the city, nearly 165 does not have the required no-objection certificate (NOC), while the remaining 339 have obtained the necessary approval, according to the audit report.

Amid low enrolment in the pre-clinical and para-clinical postgraduate medical courses, several medical colleges have started offering incentives to fill up these seats.

Despite the completion of two rounds of counselling, many medical colleges found no takers for these courses- especially in branches including anatomy, biochemistry, physiology, forensic medicine, microbiology, and pharmacology. In the case of private medical colleges, the fees for these courses range from Rs 1.1. lakh to Rs 3.5 lakh.

Raising the issue of delay in the disbursement of stipends for several months, the resident doctors in Telangana approached the State Health Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha recently. Apart from the issue of delayed stipend, the junior doctors also highlighted other issues such as stipend hikes, scholarship reimbursements, tax exemption for stipends, regular pay for the contractual staff, etc.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that back in 2024, the Telangana Junior Doctors Association had announced an indefinite strike from June 24, 2024. Approximately 7,000 junior doctors from 20 medical colleges across the State were participating in the strike, advocating for their long standing demands including the establishment of a green channel for timely stipend disbursement and inadequate honorarium for Super Specialty Senior Residents etc.