Medicos legal Action Group (MlAG) has supported the strike by medical students and interns. Around 250 MBBS students of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32, and Gian Sagar Medical College had gone on an indefinite strike on Wednesday, as part of the nationwide protests against the decision of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to extend the tenure of MBBS by two and a half years.
Dr Neeraj Nagpal Convenor of MlAG stated that their group had under Right to Information Act (RTI) asked for information from the Health Ministry regarding one year rural service for MBBS doctors. He said that MlAG had also asked for modalities of how this is to be implemented, whether these doctors will be paid and who will employ them.
The reply received from the Ministry included a notification of Post Graduate Medical Education (Amendment) Regulation 2013 (Part I) of June 2013 and part of a report was provided in which it was clarified that since doctors after four and a half years MBBS finishing in 2013 still have to do a two year internship before one year rural service, State Governments have sufficient time to formulate strategy to implement the compulsory rural service before 2015.
Dr Nagpal said that this two-year internship clause was the first that anyone had heard of till now. Students and interns already agitated over the one-year compulsory rural service reacted and went on strike. Dr Nagpal clarified that as of now the confirmed status is that those wanting to appear for Post Graduate Medical entrance exam will have to complete one year compulsory rural service in a Primary Health Centre (PHC).
Those who wish to practice as MBBS have to do a four and a half year MBBS plus one year internship (five and a half years) as before. The two-year internship is a proposal which will be opposed by MlAG and other medical organisations, he added. He criticised the Government for playing with lives of medical students and demanded withdrawal of the notification regarding compulsory rural service.