Jharkhand orders immediate stipend hike for MBBS interns, resident doctors

Ranchi: Bringing good news to the interns and resident doctors in state-run medical colleges, the Jharkhand Health Minister has directed the Health Department to increase their stipends immediately.

The decision of an immediate increase in stipend amounts for the resident doctors was taken during a meeting with the representatives of the Junior Doctors Network (JDN) at the Minister's residence in Ranchi.

Apart from this, Dr Ansari also instructed the Department's Joint Secretary to review the honorarium of Senior Residents (SRs) and Postgraduate (PG) trainee doctors, bringing them on par with their counterparts in Bihar.

Also Read: Jharkhand Govt doctors demand long-pending stipend hike

As per the latest media report by The Jharkhand Story, the Minister has ordered to increase the stipend amount of MBBS interns from Rs 17,500 to Rs 25,000 per month.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that a delegation representing five government medical colleges in Jharkhand, under the banner of the Junior Doctors Network (JDN), was planning to meet Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Health Ajay Kumar Singh and Health Minister Dr. Irfan Ansari to press for long-awaited revisions in stipends for senior residents, postgraduate students, and interns.

Earlier, JDN had demanded an increase in stipend amount for the intern doctors from Rs 17,500 to Rs 30,000 per month, highlighting that the intern doctors at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), Ranchi, currently receive Rs 32,500 per month.

The delegation urged the government to revise the pay structure for Senior Residents as well. They recommended that the doctors in their first, second, and third years should get Rs 1 lakh, Rs 1.10 lakh, and Rs 1.20 lakh respectively, so that the stipend becomes equivalent to what is offered in Bihar, where SRs earn around Rs 1 lakh monthly stipend.

Currently, the Senior Residents in Jharkhand’s five medical colleges receive a stipend ranging between Rs 80,000 and Rs 90,000 per month.

The Jharkhand Story has reported that Minister Dr Ansari has directed the Joint Secretary to assess the current Bihar structure and implement a similar scale in Jharkhand as well.

With respect to the PG trainee doctors, the JDN delegation has demanded that the first, second and third year PG trainee doctors should get Rs 85,000, Rs 92,000, and Rs 99,000 monthly stipend. At present, the PG trainees receive Rs 54,500, Rs 58,500 and Rs 63,500 respectively as monthly stipends. In this regard, the Health Minister has instructed the officials to revise the rates to ensure parity and improve working conditions.

Furthermore, Dr. Ansari has also approved maternity leave benefits for female Senior Residents across state medical colleges. This has been a key pending demand raised by the junior doctors' community.

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