House surgeons of VIMSAR await peripheral hospital posting

SAMBALPUR: The house surgeons of Veer Surendra Sai Institute of the Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR), Burla have expressed resentment over the delay in their posting at peripheral hospitals. They have written to the Directorate of Medical Education And Training (DMET) requesting early posting failing which they will be unable to complete mandatory requirements to get the MBBS degree.

Reportedly, a medical student undergoes 12 months (52 weeks) training after completion of the final MBBS examination. However, as per the guidelines of the National Medical Commission (NMC), a student must be posted in a peripheral hospital for housemanship training in medicine, surgery besides obstetrics and gynaecology for nine weeks during the 12 months training.

In the letter, the house surgeons of VIMSAR wrote to the DMET that though a month has passed since the final examination, they have not been posted in peripheral hospitals on rotation basis and are still working under their own institute. “This has prevented the students from getting the knowledge on various national health programmes, endemic disease and prevention, and emergency management at peripheral setups. Hence, we demand immediate posting of the students at CHC / PHC under community medicine, which will strengthen the grassroots health care system,” the letter read. There are 150 house surgeons in 2023-24 batch of the MBBS in VIMSAR, Burla.

The superintendent of VIMSAR has also written to the DMET on the issue. The peripheral hospitals include Chaunrpur PHC, Debeipali CHC and Themra CHC.A house surgeon of VIMSAR said, “Training in peripheral hospitals is mandatory for us to get the final completion certificate, as per the new guidelines of the NMC. If we do not work in these hospitals during the one-year training, it may affect our career.”