NMC gives nod to start super specialty courses from April 18

Hyderabad: In a much-needed relief to resident doctors and aspiring medicos of government and private hospitals in Telangana, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has given a green signal to start the academic session for last year’s super speciality courses from April 18. The three-year super speciality courses for the academic year 2021 were supposed to […]

Hyderabad: In a much-needed relief to resident doctors and aspiring medicos of government and private hospitals in Telangana, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has given a green signal to start the academic session for last year’s super speciality courses from April 18.

The three-year super speciality courses for the academic year 2021 were supposed to have started about eight months ago. However, due to the successive waves of the Covid pandemic, the entire process was delayed.

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On Thursday, the NMC released the notification that read, “The Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2000, stipulates the date of starting of the academic session and duration of the PG courses. There has been a delay in the starting of the super speciality courses on account of the Covid pandemic in the year 2021. Therefore, the NMC has decided that the academic session for super speciality courses for the year 2021 shall commence from April 18, 2022″.

There are anywhere between 100 and 110 super speciality seats in Telangana and for the last one year, the senior resident doctors pursuing these courses in government medical colleges have been handling medical duties that were supposed to be handled by first-year resident doctors.

Medicos who had joined the first year super speciality courses last year, have now reached their second year, but are continuing with the medical duties of their juniors, who are yet to get their speciality seats allocated. The delayed counselling and non-allocation of speciality seats have led to increased work pressure, apart from academic delay for the incoming batch of fresh resident doctors.

A few days ago, the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA), a national body representing the interests of resident doctors, wrote to union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya stating that the delay was affecting patient care services across all the government hospitals in the country.

Every year, the counselling for super speciality courses are usually conducted in July and the academic session starts in August. The resident doctors said that due to multiple waves of Covid, the training for current broad speciality candidates has suffered, which is now further compounded by the non-admission of the fresh batch, leaving scores of resident doctors overworked and mentally exhausted. In its notification, the NMC said: “The academic curriculum of the super speciality courses shall be completed by March 31, 2025. However, the postgraduate students should complete the required period of 36 months to complete the course”.

 

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