Maha resident docs now demand to be freed of bond policy

Mumbai: On the heels of growing demands in other states over doing away with the bond policy for doctors, Maharashtra resident doctors have also appealed to the state authorities about cancelling the mandatory services after completion of postgraduate medical courses from state-run medical colleges

Mumbai: On the heels of growing demands in other states over doing away with the bond policy for doctors, Maharashtra resident doctors have also appealed to the state authorities about cancelling the mandatory services after completion of postgraduate medical courses from state-run medical colleges.

Maha resident docs now demand to be freed of bond policy

In a letter written by the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) to the medical education minister and officials of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER), the doctors also indicated that they may also join their colleagues from Haryana in the protest against the bond.

The letter dated November 9 enumerated the many ways in which the bond service hinders the academic and professional opportunities of medical postgraduates. They point out that there are not even sufficient senior residency posts to accommodate the 1,200 resident doctors that pass out of the medical colleges every year. They said they were also unhappy about the increasing incidences of violence against resident doctors, the irregularity in their being paid their stipends and the less than satisfactory living conditions in the hostels or residential quarters provided to them.

Medical students spend almost twelve years of their lives in academics – five-and-a-half years of undergraduate studies, three years of post-graduate studies, followed by three years of super speciality training. “If you were to add a one-year bond after each stage of training, we would be done with our education after fifteen years. It is only after this that we get to decide what we can or want to do in our career,” said MARD president Dr Avinash Dahiphale.

In order to save these three years, a lot of well-to-do students opt to pay lakhs of rupees to be freed of the bond which a doctor from a not-so-well-off family can’t do. “In a way, it is like forcing us to work for a particular employer which in this case is the government-run hospitals,” said Dr Dahiphale.

Dr Pranav Jadhav, chief advisor of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) questioned why the burden of paying back to the government institutions only falls on doctors. “The government also runs premier engineering institutions like the Indian Institutes of Technology. The engineers there are not expected to stay back and serve some government institution after they complete their studies,” he said.

Moreover, he pointed out that medical students start serving in clinical settings after completing their second-year undergraduate studies. “All through the time that we are studying the postgraduate and higher courses, we are also working for the institutions we are attached to. Holding us back for another year forcefully is not fair on medical students,” said Dr Jadhav.

DMER director Dr Dilip Mhaisekar refused to comment on the issue altogether as it is being heard by the Supreme Court.