Protest,opposing voices from across the nation against exit test
The Exit exam for MBBS graduates to become doctors which has been recently proposed has become the cause of protests from doctors and medical students in different parts of the country.
Protest on the ground
In Madurai for instance, the members of the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors’ Association (TNGDA), IMA(Madurai branch) and medical students formed a human chain on Tuesday against the proposal. Another point that they contested was the formation of the National Medical Commission by usurping the MCI.
According to the protesters, the proposal is unfair to the students who already have to undergo multiple exams before getting their degree. U.K Kandha Kumar, the students’ council president of Madurai Medical College poses an important question which is probably on many minds: “Our examinations and syllabus are recognized by the government. If there is a need for another examination, is the government undermining its own system?”
P. Jayakumar, a PG student at MMC criticized the government move to allow AYUSH doctors to practice allopathy in certain circumstances. “On the one hand, government is producing ‘qualified quacks.’ On the other, it wants to filter qualified doctors, when there is already a huge shortage of doctors,” he says.
According to K Senthil, President, TNGDA, the proposal would be a blow to the quality of medical profession. His concern is that the move would benefit medical education’s privatization and centralization of power with bureaucrats and politicians, with doctors having practically no say.
Voices of dissent
Dr Arun Kumar Agarwal, former president of Delhi Medical Council also expressed his opposition to the idea of the exit exam even though he is in favour of the 50% reservation idea.
According to Dr Bipin Batra, the executive director of the National Board of Examinations, the reservation idea doesn’t change the supply of total seats available for medical graduates. But Dr Batra did point out that the reservation would ensure that the state government would augment their specialist cadre.
Dr Manish C Prabhakar, president, Indian Medical Association Young Doctors’ Wing is someone who is opposed to the proposal. According to him, yet another reservation category is unnecessary since most states already have a 50% reservations for PG seats for medical officers in place. If 50% PG seats are reserved for medical officers by a state government, only 50% remaining seats would be available to medical graduates.
Prabhakar is of the opinion that the move would be detrimental to medial graduates in general and unreserved category students in particular.
He points out some key areas that the government should look into to improve medical landscape in the country: strengthening medical education regulatory bodies, improving medical education infrastructure, making hospitals more safe for doctors and improving rural health infrastructure.
With inputs from The Hindu and Hindustan Times