Failed medicos interrupt OPD at Bihar’s PMCH, demand re-evaluation

As many as 423 of the 1,140 MBBS students (37.10%) who appeared in the exams across nine medical colleges in Bihar have failed the first university examinations, in what was the worst performance by medicos since the inception of the AKU in 2010, university officials said.

Some MBBS second-year students of the 2019 batch forced the closure of the outdoor patient departments (OPDs) at the Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) on Saturday as a mark of protest, demanding re-evaluation of answer sheets of the MBBS first professional examination, conducted by the Aryabhatta Knowledge University (AKU) in March.

The agitating students, who staged a protest near the principal’s office, forced closure of the OPD by 10.30 am, two hours after the services began on Saturday. (Santosh Kumar/HT Photo)

As many as 423 of the 1,140 MBBS students (37.10%) who appeared in the exams across nine medical colleges in Bihar have failed the first university examinations, in what was the worst performance by medicos since the inception of the AKU in 2010, university officials said.

Students, who accessed copies of their answer sheets through the Right to Information Act, claimed that some of their correct answers remained unmarked during evaluation.

The agitating students, who staged a protest near the principal’s office, forced closure of the OPD by 10.30 am, two hours after the services began on Saturday. They also met the principal and gave him a representation, addressed to the AKU vice-chancellor, demanding re-evaluation of answer sheets.

The students said they would continue to agitate and allow only emergency services to function at the hospital if their demands were not met.

PMCH principal Dr Vidyapati Choudhary sympathised with the students whose correct answers remained unmarked, while some had failed narrowly.

“There were around 5-6 students who were not awarded marks for answers evaluated to be correct. I spoke to the registrar of the university and have forwarded their application for consideration. A few students have failed by just one or two marks. Still, our result has been better than most other medical colleges, as 19 out of the 172 students who appeared in the examination had failed,” said Dr Choudhary.

The principal said the undergraduate students, for the first time, interrupted OPD services twice during the day, but he got the services restored within an hour or two.

The medicos had earlier demanded that the failed students be promoted based on their internal marks, obtained in the first and second semester exams, conducted by the respective medical colleges. The National Medical Commission, which governs the medical curriculum, however, does not allow it, said university officials.

The AKU stand so far has been that medicos who have flunked the exams should appear in the supplementary exams to be held from September 27.

Medicos of Patna’s Nalanda Medical College Hospital had protested on the AKU campus on September 1, after the university declared the results on August 30. Protests were also reported earlier at the Vardhaman Institute of Medical Sciences in Pawapuri and the Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College Hospital, Gaya

.