Maha DMER derecognises Bond served in BMC hospitals through Parallel counselling, Doctors threaten mass leave
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Mumbai: Introducing a major change, the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), Maharashtra has decided that from this year forward, the one-year mandatory bond served by senior resident doctors in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation-run medical colleges via counselling conducted by BMC will be considered to be null and void.
DMER has introduced this change to introduce parity in the system and to ensure that BMC does not give preference to their students to fill up the posts of Senior Resident (SR) doctors and in turn, leaving other students from the State in a lurch.
The issue goes back to 2011 when a PG student approached the Bombay High Court over his appointment at a peripheral hospital of BMC instead of a BMC-run medical college despite being a top scorer.
While considering the matter, when the Court questioned the DMER about the same, the Directorate informed the Court that they did not have any authority to write BMC-run medical colleges as BMC had its own medical director. Thereafter, the HC bench had ordered DMER to control all the counselling rounds as per merit across the State including in the BMC run hospitals. Following this, a centralised system to fill up the posts of Senior Residents was set up in the year 2012.
As per the latest media report by Hindustan Times, the former director of DMER informed that until 2019, the directorate ensured compliance with the High Court order by conducting a centralised counselling. However, he added that "After 2019, BMC started to fill their posts without considering the state merit list, but DMER did not take any action."
Last week, the State Medical Education Department wrote to the BMC Commissioner IS Chahal and asked him to ensure that the civic body's four medical colleges do not reserve any posts for senior residents and house officers for their students. This move came after the BMC-run medical colleges preferred their students overruling the merit list and counselling of DMER for the second year and violated the order issued by the Bombay High Court.
Commenting on the matter, the Director of DMER, Dr. Dileep Mhaisekar told HT, "It has been observed that BMC has been recruiting SRs prior to the declaration of posts across the state. This is a violation of the high court order regarding allotment of SR posts, so we sent them a letter eight days back. Last time too, the medical education commissioner had issued a letter to the civic body, but they had filled up the SR posts on their own."
He further alleged that the BMC students were picking up plum posts while other students from across the State were competing over the remaining posts. Referring to this practice, Dr. Mhaisekar added, "This is highly unfair."
BMC MARD slams move:
While the civil body claimed that it issued the DMER notice in all their medical colleges on January 01, the move has been strongly opposed by the association of resident doctors of BMC hospitals.
BMC MARD has threatened to go on mass leave from January 15 if the decision is not rolled back.
BMC MARD, in its letter directed to DMER, has accused the authorities and the Secretary of MEDD of showing lack of inclusivity by derecognizing bond service in BMC hospitals through parallel counselling.
Commenting on the matter, the President of BMC MARD, Dr. Vardhaman Rothe said, "The high court verdict mentions the need to inform authorities about vacancies. It does not explicitly prohibit counselling by the BMC, which is well-advertised, transparent and merit-based."
DMER's decision finds support from Central MARD:
Amid all this, the Central MARD has strongly opposed the decision of BMC MARD. Central MARD officials opined that a resident doctor from the peripheral college of the State has an equal right on a Senior Resident post as of a resident doctor of Mumbai as both have taken admission through the same entrance examination and PG counselling.
The decision of DMER has been welcomed by the Central MARD, which mentioned in a Press Release dated 09.01.2024, "Central MARD is appalled upon observing a series of grim events that has ensued in Mumbai's Civic Medical Colleges."
"After detailed and thorough investigation of the matter, Central MARD welcomes Government’s move to derecognize the validity of Senior Residency attained through parallel counselling, however Central MARD hopes that the illegal parallel counselling should be banned and abolished at the earliest. A centralized counselling which is based on Merit, done in a transparent manner with access to information to residents across the state is the need of the hour," the association mentioned in the release.
"All the seats of the post of SRs of every Medical college should be accessible to all the residents of the state, this will create fairness and allow all SR posts to be filled in a systematic manner which will increase the efficiency of the Hospitals and allow better patient care. We condemn the BMC parallel counselling that has been conducted every year, this illegal counselling since last several years is an act of contempt of court. As a responsible state Body of Resident doctors, we the Central MARD condemn the irresponsible step taken by BMC MARD, the call for Mass Leave for an illegal recognition of a post attained through anti merit procedure is detrimental for the residents of the state," it further added.
Medical students become eligible for SR posts after completing their three-year postgraduate programmes (MD/MS/DNB). However, all PG students at the government medical colleges must complete a one-year bond working for the State and only after this, they are allowed to pursue their career in academics or other private jobs. Doctors having at least one year's experience as senior residents become eligible to become assistant professors in the medical colleges.
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