MBBS interns seek hike in stipend on Central govt lines

Balwant Garg
Tribune News Service
Faridkot, January 4

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With about 39 per cent increase in stipend, from Rs 17,000 to Rs 23,500 per month for the interns associated with various Central government medical colleges in the country, ‘disgruntled’ MBBS interns in three government medical colleges in the state have also raised the demand to increase their stipend.

For the past over six years, the interns in the government medical colleges in the state are being given Rs 9,000 per month. This stipend was increased from Rs 4,500 to Rs 9,000 in 2012.

Working 30 days a month and a 12-hour shift daily, these ‘over-strained’ junior doctors at the government medical colleges have sought the Chief Minister’s help as the amount they are getting for their job is less than the minimum wages fixed for the unskilled labour.

Deepak John Bhatti, principal, Guru Gobind Singh Medical College in Faridkot, said they had sent a representation of the students, demanding hike in stipend to the state government.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has announced to increase the MBBS interns’ stipend this week.

The stipend will be paid in centre-run medical institutions, which include AIIMS (all branches), JIPMER-Puducherry, Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital, New Delhi, Lady Harding Medical College, Delhi, VMMC and Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, and North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences, Shillong. This increase is stipend is effective retrospectively from January 1, 2018. 

“While the interns in Central government medical colleges and hospitals are getting Rs 23,500 stipend and even the private medical colleges in Punjab are paying up to Rs 15,000, unluckily, we are getting just Rs 300 daily,” said interns.

While a similar situation prevails at Patiala and Amritsar government medical colleges, young doctors in Faridkot feel they are in more trouble. The reason being the higher workload in the university attached medical college in Faridkot. 

Moreover, the number of intern doctors in Faridkot medical college is 50 per cent lesser than Patiala and Amritsar colleges.

The stipend being paid to the intern doctors in government medical colleges in Punjab is lowest in the country, allege the young doctors, adding that the stipend amount for MBBS interns, acknowledged as provisionally registered medical practitioners by the Medical Council of India, is calculated at 40 per cent of the gross emoluments in the first year of service of a junior resident doctor.

While the emoluments of the junior resident doctors are revised every two years and presently there are recommendations to enhance the gross emoluments of junior residents, the state government is not concerned about the stipend to the interns, they rued.

The stipend to all medical students is paid for one-year period of their compulsory internship after completion of their four-year and six-month academic course. During the internship, the students assist in running the medical colleges and hospitals.