Telangana rearranges accommodation facilities for 800 PG medical students for DRP in remote areas

Hyderabad: Taking note of the accommodation issue in remote areas of Telangana, the state government has recently issued a revised posting order which has allowed nearly 800 Post Graduate (PG) medical students to stay closer to area hospitals for the District Residency Programme (DRP).

The PG students who had enrolled on the DRP were facing accommodation issues while serving in the state's remote areas. They complained that the hospitals were located far away from the parent hospital where they were enrolled.

Therefore, as promised by the Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr K Ramesh Reddy all the 800 students' accommodation issues have been taken into consideration and a new location was provided in the order issued on Thursday.

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Commenting on this, A senior health department official told TOI, "After the PG senior students represented about their problems, we have reallocated all the 800 students. We have also kept reallocation open for other students who might have problems with accommodation."

“The government was working on enhancing the quality of medical education and preparing students to brace for challenges. For the dual purpose of preparing them and providing speciality services in rural areas, the government has allocated 800 PG students to medical colleges in the districts and Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad hospitals," he added.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that Junior Doctors at government hospitals in Telangana, led by the members of the Junior Doctors Association (JUDA), decided to call off their strike after Director of Medical Education (DME) Dr K Ramesh Reddy assured the doctors that their demand would be met soon regarding the District Residency Programme (DRP) and pending stipends.

The protesters highlighted the poor working facilities given by the government. They wore black badges demanding that PG students attending DRP be given sufficient accommodations, security, and food amenities.

Their demands also included raising stipends by 15 percent, providing a written guarantee that stipends will be credited by the 10th of each month, and clearing pending stipends for February and March.

In response to this, Dr Reddy held a meeting on Monday and informed that the first batch of the DRP would be allotted to a different hospital near parent hospitals so that they can get sufficient accommodations, security, and food amenities.

According to the daily, Some PG students from Kakatiya Medical College were allocated to Mahbubnagar but following a representation from them, they have been allocated to Narsampet.

Similarly, some students from the Osmania Medical College were reallocated to area hospitals in Nampally, Malakpet, King Koti and Patancheru, while those from Gandhi Hospital have been relocated to Kondapur and Malkajgiri.

Earlier, the students claimed that the Health Secretary promised that the government would give accommodation and food to PG students providing services in district hospitals in accordance with NMC rules, but the concerned district hospital superintendents allegedly refused to provide said facilities.

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