MEDICAL SS SEATS LYING VACANT, MCC SLASHES CUT - OFF FOR MOP - UP ROUND
With no takers for a few super speciality courses across the country, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) was recently forced to slash the eligibility cut offs for special counselling round to fill the vacant seats. The Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) earlier this week announced that National Eligibility cum Entrance Test Super Speciality (NEET SS) 2023 candidates with zero percentile are also eligible to secure a super speciality seat if they opt for it. Out of 5000 super speciality seats available in medical colleges across the country, as many as 1000 are still lying vacant after the two rounds of counselling under the NEET SS. Speaking to Education Times, a senior health ministry official says, About 1000 seats out of 5000 in super speciality are still lying vacant.
Candidates are showing no interest in signing up for some surgical and nonclinical courses.In super speciality courses, there is demand in only a few branches. Most doctors opt for specialisation that pays well in the long run. Most students are also not interested in those branches that have fewer patients and hospitals running them. We have seen loss interest among candidates in domains such as Cardiovascular and Thoracic surgery (CVTS), paediatric, plastic surgery and neurosurgery, adds the official.
According to NMC sources, lowering the cut-off will be a matter of compromise on the quality of medical admission. NMC has recommended that there is no need for a third round to fill the remaining vacant seats. Last year also about 700 seats remained vacant despite lowering the percentile to zero. Their are less super speciality candidates in some of the surgical branches as medical treatment has improved and those cases can be treated with medicine instead of surgery, says the NMC official. For domains like CVTS, a doc tor cannot function independently as the doctor always needs to work with a team of doctors that operates, which is a major setback for the specialist. New medical branches such as neuro anaesthesia, specialisations under oncology, organ transplants are also not in demand as compared to specialisations including gastro surgery, urology, medicine, etc. We have noticed a new interest among doctors for specialisations in spine surgery, says Dr Aviral Mathur, president, FORDA. The reason behind less demand for paediatric surgery and cardio thoracic streams is that they are physically more demanding than some other streams. The success rate is also less and there are only a few cases in these domains. Specialisations that cover more than one MD branches also see less candidates,adds Dr Mathur.
Challenge of hefty fees
The majority of the seats that are lying vacant are in private colleges where the fees are very high about Rs 50 lakh per annum amounting to Rs 1.5 crore for the three-year course. Some seats in the government colleges offering these courses are also lying vacant despite the low fee structure. The doctors, by the time they are eligible for super specialty, are already over 30 years and some of them are married which makes paying the course fee of Rs 1.5 crore very taxing. So many of them avoid super speciality courses, says the NMC official. Colleges also do not provide a proper stipend to super speciality students. Some of the students have alleged that the stipend is provided only on paper, but nothing is credited to students account, adds Dr Mathur.
Published on - Times of India
Date - 29/01/2024
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