Unpaid stipend, illicit means to show amount transactions: Telangana medicos allege stipend discrepancies
Hyderabad: House surgeons and resident doctors at the private medical colleges in Telangana have alleged that most of the institutes do not pay any stipends to them.
Further, several colleges take stipend amounts from the students and show transfer of amounts to students using illicit means, Deccan Chronicle has reported.
Some of the students at the private medical colleges have stated that either they do not receive stipends at all or get nominal amounts, such as Rs 10,000 for the resident doctors and Rs 2,000 for the MBBS interns.
As per PGMER 2023 Regulations, the post-graduate students undergoing post-graduate Degree/Diploma/Super-speciality courses in all the institutions shall be paid a stipend at par with the stipend being paid to the post-graduate students of State Government medical institutions/Central Government medical institutions, in the State/Union Territory where the institution is located.
Regarding the issue of stipend for the MBBS interns, the NMC CRMI Regulations, 2021 states that the interns shall be paid a stipend as fixed by the appropriate authority applicable to the institution/ University or State.
While these regulations specify that the medical colleges must pay stipends to MBBS interns and resident doctors, NMC in the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023, has specified what penalties may be imposed on the institute for violation of its rules. As per these regulations, NMC can take action against a medical institute for violation of any of the regulations and such penalties could include withholding and withdrawal of accreditation for five academic years and a penalty of Rs 1 crore.
The Telangana Government had also released a Government Order in 2023, as per which, the resident doctors get stipend ranging from Rs 54,000 to Rs 64,000 per month and an MBBS intern gets about Rs 25,000 per month.
However, as per the Deccan Chronicle report, the MBBS interns and resident doctors at private medical colleges in Telangana have alleged that they do not get any stipend or get a meagre amount from the institutes.
As per the latest report by Deccan Chronicle, the resident doctors at Kamineni Hospital get Rs 35,000 as stipend, students at Malla Reddy get Rs 15,000, and students at Apollo and Bhaskar get Rs 10,000 each. Meanwhile, many other colleges, such as Mamata Medical College, Chalmeda Anand Rao Institute of Medical Sciences and Prathima Medical College, show transfer of amounts to students through bank transactions but take the amounts back.
In this regard, last year a complaint was raised by Dr Ashok, pursuing MD Radiology in Bhaskar Medical College and submitted to all relevant authorities, including the Telangana and National Medical Commission, Directorate of Medical Education, Income-Tax, Enforcement Directorate and the Health Minister of Telangana. However, no steps were taken.
Commenting on this, Dr Ashok told Deccan Chronicle, “Bhaskar Medical College has failed to pay a stipend to us, which is in violation of the aforesaid regulation. They take blank cheques from students and credit the amounts to show documentation of the amount credited, but later they debit the same amount, leaving only Rs 10,000 per month with students.”
Speaking to the Daily, the Chairman of Malla Reddy Health City, Dr. Ch. Bhadra Reddy said, “We pay around Rs 4,500 to interns and Rs 20,000 to residents. This is because we are getting only 50% of the fee as directed by AFRC. The fee for a regular MBBS course is Rs 7 lakh per year and Rs 23 lakh per year for management quota students.”
According to the institute’s website, the MBBS course fee per year if Rs 19 lakh for general seats, and the fees goes up to Rs 60 lakh per year for PG specialties. The website further mentions that the stipend for PG residents is up to Rs 49,000 per month.
Meanwhile, commenting on the issue, a second-year resident from MNR Medical College, Sangareddy, shard that the college had forced the students to open a bank account in a bank of their choice and asked them to share a signed blank cheque of the same.
She told the Daily, “Using this, they credit around Rs 55-60,000 in that account every month and then withdraw the same also. In case the cheque bounces or some other issue occurs, they ask the students to pay back in cash. When objected, the college authorities said, “This is how management works.”
“With so much hard work, by the end of the day, all we want is our degree and certificate, which the college can hold back if we don’t comply by their rules. This is why most students have not raised objections at a larger level,” she added.
Last year in November, the National Medical Commission (NMC) slapped show-cause notices on altogether 198 medical colleges for not complying with the Commission’s directives to upload the details of the stipend paid to the interns and resident doctors.
Medical Dialogues had reported that, back then, releasing a list of those 198 medical colleges on 28.11.2024, NMC specified that the failure of those colleges to submit the information regarding stipends was “considered seriously”.
When NMC conducted a preliminary survey across India, it reflected that around 26% of the private medical colleges do not pay any stipend to interns and resident doctors. Around 54% were not paying stipends on par with government medical colleges and around 15% of the colleges take the amounts back from students.