NEET PG 2022: With 6000 seats available, NBE lowers cut-off by 15%

According to statistics submitted by the Union Health Ministry in the Lok Sabha, there were 1,425 PG seats that remained unfilled in 2020, even after the mop-up round of counselling.

The testing body altered the cut-offs in response to Health Ministry instructions published on Saturday.

A letter from the Medical Counselling Committee member secretary, Dr B Srinivas, to the NBE executive director, Dr Minu Bajpai, states, “After due discussion and deliberations, it has been decided by MoHFW in consultation with NMC… to reduce cut-off. In view of the above, you are requested to kindly declare the revised result and send revised result data of newly eligible candidates.”

The move has been welcomed by doctors’ associations, which had made a similar demand earlier. “This is a good move by the government and much needed. This year, the exams were delayed twice due to Covid-19, and in the meantime many (doctors) worked in the Covid wards, they got Covid themselves, and some lost their family members,” said Dr Rohan Krishnan, the Federation of All India Medical Associations (FAIMA) president.

This was necessary, he said, to ensure that all seats get filled up and the existing PG students are not left “overburdened” again. “We need more doctors now, over 6,000 seats cannot be left vacant,” he said. The PG students also work in the associated hospitals as junior residents.

The doctors affiliated to the FAIMA and the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association had gone on a strike in December last year after the counselling was deferred due to court cases following a six-month delay in the examination.