The provision on stipend in the draft regulations for compulsory rotating internship has been termed to be vague as it could give ample room for private medical college managements to deny payment to MBBS interns.
According to sources, the regulations were published by the National Medical Commission (NMC) on April 21. The provision on stipend states that “all interns shall be paid stipend as fixed by the appropriate fee fixation authority as applicable to the institution/university/State”. Compulsory rotating internship is the mandatory one-year-service for medical graduates in hospitals attached to a medical college or any other approved teaching hospital.
Public health professionals pointed out that a public notice by the Medical Council of India (MCI) on January 25, 2019, on Graduate Medical Education regulations had stated that “all the candidates pursuing compulsory rotating internship at the institution from which MBBS course was completed, shall be paid stipend on par with the stipend being paid to the interns of the State government medical institution/Central government medical institution in the State/Union Territory where the institution is located”.
It was, however, not gazetted till the Board of Governors of the MCI was dissolved. The NMC replaced the MCI in September last year. There has been long-pending demand to have a uniform stipend for interns across medical colleges as some private medical colleges are being accused of paying meagre amounts to them.
K.V. Babu, Kannur-based public health expert, said it was unfair to entrust the fee fixation authority with the payment of stipend, which was the right of the interns. He said the Kerala High Court, in an order on October 29, 2015, had directed PMS College of Dental Science and Research, Thiruvananthapuram, to pay stipend to BDS interns at the rate of what was being paid at government dental colleges in the State.
In a mail to NMC Chairman Suresh Chandra Sharma, Dr. Babu said the provision could be rephrased as follows: “All the candidates pursuing compulsory rotating internship at the institution from which MBBS course was completed, shall be paid stipend on par with the stipend being paid to the interns of the State Government Medical Institution/Central Government Medical Institution in the State/Union Territory where the institution is located.”
