It's been 70 days at home for 7,000 MBBS doctors awaiting rural postings amidst second Covid-19 wave

A Covid ward requires three to four times more staff than a general ward due to the shifts required of staff and medical tests required to be done. At a time when the State is struggling to get a hold of the pandemic with limited manpower, as many as 7,000 MBBS doctors in Karnataka who have finished their one year internship are at home awaiting rural postings.

They completed their internship in January. Generally after completion of internship, they visit the Directorate of Medical Education (DME) and request for an NOC (no-objection certificate) for a Karnataka Medical Council registration and release of original documents from the college. However, after more than two months, they're awaiting the health department to post them to rural areas.

Dr PG Girish, Director of Medical Education, said, "Health department has to post them. The DME has no role to play. The court has exempted students who joined before July 2015, all private and management quota students. We have forwarded a series of letters from students to the health department saying they're waiting, asking them to post them in PHCs, taluk hospitals or any public health institute."

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Abdul Khadar, one of these doctors who is awaiting rural posting told DH, "This year when we went to DME and requested for NOC, they said they will not issue NOC and that we must do compulsory rural service for one year. They said they will forward our request to the health department. We are not refusing to do rural service, we are ready for it. But the Government is delaying it. We are wasting our precious time. It's emotionally very frustrating."

"Even after the High court order the department is not allotting us to primary health centres (PHCs). If they delay this further, we may face consequences during our admission to postgraduate courses (PG) next year. PG courses will begin in April and we will be stuck in PHCs. As many as 7,000 doctors have been made unemployed by the Government for more than 70 days," he added.

Shilpa G, who studied at and finished her one-year internship from Bengaluru's ESI Hospital, Rajajinagar, told DH there is still confusion among students about rural service due to a series of contradictory court orders after March 15. "By now, we could have completed two months of rural service," she said.

Health Commissioner Dr Trilok Chandra and Director Dr Omprakash Patil did not respond to calls and messages from DH.