According to the latest reports, nearly 1,600 postgraduate final year medical students from the 2018-19 batch in the state who offered their services to COVID-19 patients during the first and second wave are disheartened.
Based on accounts, this is because the state has excluded them from the INR 1.21 lakh special incentive declared in 2021 for those resident doctors on coronavirus duty. These doctors are now claimed to be serving their medical bonds and have written to state cabinet minister Aaditya Thackeray about the same.
When the pandemic first struck in 2020, at the short-staffed government and civic-run hospitals, these resident doctors took the responsibility. Owing to this, many even ended up contracting the novel virus.
However, with the completion of the academic year in June 2021, they aren’t qualified as active resident doctors and thus have been excluded from benefits. These include attaining the special INR 1.21 lakh incentive declared by the Maharashtra government to each resident doctor involved in COVID-19 care.
It has also been reported that recently the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) sought approval of INR 26.07 crore to offer an incentive to resident doctors in the first, second, final year postgraduate course.
But it has now come to light that some medical students haven’t taken admission in the first year of postgraduation owing to delay in NEET-PG counselling. These medical practitioners, after completing their PG, serve their bond in government and civic-run hospitals in the state as senior resident doctors.
Voicing their concern, the Maharashtra Association of Bonded Senior Resident Doctors on Wednesday, February 16, wrote to Thackeray.
Usually, final year resident doctors are given relief in May since it is when the new academic year starts. However, owing to the COVID-19 pandemic that resulted in a shortage of staff and delays in admission the 1,600 resident doctors were given an extension till June 2021.
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