NEET PG 2022 Counselling: Resident doctor groups threaten more protests over delay

Associations of resident physicians have written to the Health Minister and the Director General of Health Services stating that they may be obliged to protest after the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) postponed the counselling for NEET-PG 2022.

The National Medical Commission will be able to give Letters of Permission for additional post-graduate seats, the MCC stated in a message dated September 29. As a result, the counselling will be postponed.

When NEET-PG 2021 counselling only began in February of this year, resident physicians from medical college hospitals all over India went on strike in December to demand that the government speed up the process. MBBS students have requested that the PG test for 2022 be postponed by 8–10 weeks because it had been planned to take place right after the counselling for the previous year.

The Health ministry, however, did not agree to delay the exams, saying that authorities were trying to regularise the batches that were delayed because of the pandemic. The exams were conducted as scheduled on May 21 and the results were announced within 10 days, but the process of counselling went into an “indefinite halt for a long duration”, with the NMC releasing a tentative schedule in the first half of August.

The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), which had organised the demonstrations in December, criticised the cancellation of the 2022 counselling and claimed it would be “unfavourable” for the healthcare system.

“We fail to understand the reasons of such procedural delays… The academic session is already delayed by almost 4-5 months, delaying it further is highly unfavourable not only for medical graduates but also for the health system of the nation,” wrote FORDA in the letter to the Health minister.

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The association said, “In case there happens to be any further delay in the counselling process, then we will be forced to protest.”

The Federation of All India Medical Association, which was also a part of last year’s protest, said in a letter to the Director General of Health Services, “We urge the concerned officials to expedite the process of NEET-PG counselling 2022 without further delay and to release the official counselling schedule as soon as possible. The year 2021 saw a nationwide massive strike by resident doctors to expedite the process… And now, history is about to repeat itself… The concerned authorities are inciting students to repeat such actions by again delaying the counselling process.”