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MBBS interns in Bihar call off strike
The MBBS interns get a monthly stipend of ₹15,000, which they claim is the lowest in India, and want it raised to ₹35,000.
PATNA Around 900 MBBS medicos across nine government medical colleges of Bihar resumed duty Friday morning following verbal assurance from the state health officials that their demand for hike in monthly stipend would be considered sympathetically.
The MBBS interns get a monthly stipend of ₹15,000, which they claim is the lowest in India, and want it raised to ₹35,000.
Over the last two days, the medicos had disrupted hospital services, including outdoor patient department (OPD) and laboratory investigations, at most of the nine government medical colleges.
The Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH), Nalanda Medical College Hospital (NMCH), both in Patna, and the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH) in Darbhanga were among the worst affected as many patients coming from different districts had to return due to lack of treatment.
“We have withdrawn our work boycott call following an assurance by Pratyaya Amrit, additional chief secretary, health, that our demands will be looked into sympathetically and expeditiously. We have resumed duty from Friday morning,” said Rohit Kumar, a 2016-batch MBBS student at the PMCH.
“If the government still does not listen to our demands and implement them, we will paralyse both emergency and OPD services,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Junior Doctors’ Association (JDA), which was tacitly supporting the interns, termed their demand as genuine.
“Their (the MBBS interns) demands are genuine and the government should revise the stipend, which is due for revision since April last year,” said Dr Manoranjan Kumar, JDA president, PMCH.
“MBBS students have been getting ₹15,000 as monthly stipend during their internship period since 2013 in government medical colleges of Bihar. The health department had in April 2017 issued a letter mentioning that our stipend will be revised every three years, but has not done it so far,” said Rohit.
PMCH principal Dr Vidyapati Choudhary said he had to caution the medicos to call off their protest and return to work, failing which he would have initiated action against them.
“Our OPD services were partially affected for two days. I then warned the students of repercussions if they continued to disrupt hospital functioning and did not return to work. The medicos have joined their work today,” he said.
OPD services at most of the nine state-run medical colleges, including the PMCH, NMCH, DMCH, the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College in Gaya, Sri Krishna Medical College Hospital in Muzaffarpur, Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College Hospital in Bhagalpur, the Government Medical College in Bettiah, the Jan Nayak Karpoori Thakur Medical College and Hospital, Madhepura, and the Vardhaman Institute of Medical Sciences, Pawapuri, were affected due to the medicos protest over the last couple of days.
MBBS students have to undergo one-year compulsory rotational internship, after clearing four university exams in four-and-a-half-years during the course. They are attached to different departments and are tasked to do initial assessment of patients under guidance of senior doctors during their internship period during which they get a consolidated monthly stipend.
