House surgeons, PG Doctors wait for Stipend since SIX months
Mangaluru : As many as 100 house surgeons and 50 postgraduate doctors studying in Kasturba Medical College here under the government quota and who have been working at Government Wenlock and Government Lady Goschen Hospitals in the city have been waiting for their stipend from the government since April. The students who met C.N. Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Medical Education, here drew his attention to the same. They had met Health and Family Welfare Minister R. Sriramulu too some time ago. But, according the house surgeons, the government has not given any positive response.
The house surgeons have to get Rs 20,000 per month during their one-year training, while the postgraduate students in the first, second and final year of the course have to get Rs 30,000, Rs 35,900, and Rs 40,000, respectively, per month. “We are being forced to work without stipend, which we rightly deserve. It’s sad to see the government treating us like this,” said a house surgeon, who was at the airport to meet Narayan after finishing a gruelling 12-hour night shift at Lady Goschen Hospital. “We are just being assured of action, but nothing has been done,” said another house surgeon.
This is the third successive year that the house surgeons and postgraduate doctors are facing this problem. Following a number of representations, they were paid stipend a few days before the completion of their one-year term in 2018 and 2019. While releasing the stipend in January, the Director of the Directorate of Medical Education wrote to his counterpart from the Department of Health and Family Welfare on January 8, 2019 that it was the latter that has allowed Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, and JJM Medical College, Davangere, for using Government Wenlock Hospital and Chitageri District Hospital, Davangere, respectively, for their clinical services. Hence stipend for the government quota students of these two colleges from 2019-20 has to be borne by the two hospitals, which come under the purview of the Health and Family Welfare Department.
On July 24, the Superintendent of Government Wenlock Hospital H. Rajeshwaridevi wrote to the Director of Health and Family Welfare Department that the hospital was paying the stipend out of the grant of Rs 2.5 crore released by the Medical Education Department till 2018-19. In the absence of any grant for 2019-20, the hospital has not paid stipend, she said and asked the officer to take steps on the demand of students.