Final year PG residents suffer due to strike: Doctors refuse to sign dissertation unless govt meets their demands

Due to the ongoing strike, doctors are refusing to sign on the final dissertation unless the government gives assurances that their demands are met

Mumbai: After months of stress, medical students finally started to breathe a sigh of relief with the commencement of admission to postgraduate (PG) and undergraduate (UG) courses; however, that didn’t last too long, as a new challenge cropped up for the final year PG resident doctors. The ongoing strike of medical officers including doctors of 18 state-run hospitals has left these students with no one to authorise their final dissertation.

While doctors are continuing the fight for their rights, postgraduate resident doctors are facing trouble as the final authority signature on their thesis is pending at present. (HT)

Final year PG students will be appearing for their final exams in summer 2022, and in order to be eligible for the same, they need to submit their individual thesis signed by their PG guides. PG guides are doctors working across state-run hospitals who have made it clear that they will not engage in administrative and teaching work unless the government meets their demands.

“Our demands are not illegitimate, nor are they new,” said Dr Samir Golawar, general secretary, Maharashtra State Medical Teacher’s Association (MSMTA). “We have been raising queries for the past few years but the government has conveniently ignored the same. In the last two years, we have not only ensured continuous education for future doctors but also engaged in patient care working extra shifts to tide over the ongoing pandemic. How can the government ignore our demands?”

While doctors are continuing the fight for their rights, postgraduate resident doctors are facing trouble as the final authority signature on their thesis is pending at present. The thesis was supposed to be submitted in January this year but the deadline was extended to February due to the ongoing protest.

“Our final exams should be scheduled for May this year and in order to be eligible for the exams, our final thesis has to be signed by respective PG guides. Due to the ongoing strike, doctors are refusing to sign on the final dissertation unless the government gives assurances that their demands are met. We, final year PG residents are the ones who are suffering in this situation,” said a final year PG resident, on condition of anonymity.

The Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD), while showing support to the teachers, recently highlighted this issue to the Maharashtra University of Health Sciences (MUHS) following which the examination authority has agreed to extend the deadline once again. In a notification dated February 3, MUHS has clarified that the deadline to submit final dissertation for PG residents is now extended to February 15 without late fees and February 28 with a late fee.

“Deans/principal/director of all affiliated PG medical institutes are hereby requested to look into the matter so that the concerned PG teachers would sign on the dissertation of respective students as not signing on the dissertation is unethical,” the notification clarifies.

Members of MSMTA on Thursday met and decided to continue patient care but stop all administrative and academic work for the time being. “The government needs to hear us out and give us concrete assurances. We don’t want our students to suffer but the authorities have left us with no option but to strengthen our fight,” said another member of MSMTA.