FAIMA writes to Union Health Minister seeking counselling for Super Specialty Batch 2021

FAIMA, a nationwide organisation of resident doctors’ groups, has written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, requesting that the NEET super specialty batch of 2021 be counselled as soon as possible. This issue is now being litigated before the Supreme Court.

In December last year, resident physicians from medical institutions and hospitals throughout India went on strike, demanding that NEET-PG counselling be expedited, which finally began in January this year after several months of delay. The test, which is used to select post-graduate candidates for positions as junior residents, was guided by people who were already employed. Because the outgoing batch had gone but the fresh batch had not yet arrived, the delays had resulted in a one-third personnel shortfall.

Similarly, the super-speciality tests are the basis for selection of students who want to specialise in fields such as cardiac surgery or neurosurgery after their post-graduation. The test for the super-speciality batch of 2021, which was scheduled to be conducted in November last year, was finally held this January. However, the counselling process is in a lurch with a Supreme Court case pending on Tamil Nadu’s policy of reserving 50 per cent of its seats for in-service doctors of the state. This was, however, not mentioned in the information bulletin for the test.

“The new batch of NEET-SS 2021 is already six months later. Furthermore, the super specialisation residents who are currently working are overworked due to no new residents joining for the last year. Delaying NEET-SS 2021 counselling will result in further burnout of the already stretched workforce and compromise patient care,” FAIMA said in its letter.