An empowered committee of the Health Ministry has recommended a hike in the monthly stipend for MBBS internees in Central government institutions and hospitals from Rs. 9,400 to about Rs 13,500.
If accepted by the Finance Ministry and the Centre, the recommendation will directly benefit all those interning in Central government and Central Government Health Scheme hospitals. State government hospitals may also have to revise the stipends, and private hospitals could take their cue though they are not bound to do so.
The stipend amount for MBBS internees, 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. It is revised every two years and the new recommendation is to enhance it from 40 to 50 per cent of the gross emoluments of junior residents.
The present formula has been in place since 2002 with the last revision done in 2007. A meeting earlier this week suggested that there was need to enhance the amount in the wake of the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations and the long working hours the interns put in as they are in the first line of treatment. As per the existing formula, the amount would have touched to Rs 11,000. If accepted, the new stipend will be effective from January 1, 2010.
The stipend for Compulsory Rotational Residential Internship involves work in the hospital attached to the internees' medical college or occasionally in any other approved hospital for one year. This is required for the award of the MBBS degree.
Once the formula is accepted and implemented by the Centre for its MBBS doctors, a similar step for dental interns is also expected. However, the Delhi government and other Union Territories will have to take a decision for their hospitals. An internee is posted in all clinical departments of the hospital on rotation. This gives him/her the basic clinical experience in all disciplines of medicine and enables him/her to work as a general physician.
