Medical interns serving in govt hospitals stage protest demanding stipend

Mangaluru, Oct 23: Having not been paid their rightful stipend for the last eight months despite representations to the government, medical interns and postgraduate medical students serving major government hospitals staged a protest demonstration here on Monday.

As many as 51 medical interns and 38 postgraduate medical students, having completed and doing their courses at the Kasturba Medical College under government quota seats, have been serving the Government Wenlock Hospital, Government Lady Goschen Hospital and the Regional Advanced Paediatric Care Unit. While interns are to be paid Rs. 20,000 stipend a month, postgraduate students are paid Rs. 30,000, Rs. 35,000 and Rs. 40,000 a month for the first, second and third year of their course, respectively.

Not a single intern or postgraduate student has been paid stipend since March this year, said Ujwal U. Suvarna from the Interns and PG Students Association. He said that the interns and postgraduate students form the backbone of the government healthcare system serving people in the region. Crucial sections, including the casualty, emergency, ICU, labour, out-patient department and operating rooms, would remain affected without their services.

Despite their services, the interns and postgraduate students are regularly facing discrimination and apathy with regard to monthly stipend, Mr. Suvarna said. Though they are entitled to stipend, the Department of Medical Education has deprived them of the facility on technical grounds; even appeals to the Chief Minister and the Medical Education Minister have gone in vein, he rued.

While some interns are on the verge of defaulting their education loan repayment, others are unable to pay house rents, said M.B. Prasad, an intern. Many of them are married and have financial commitments and the non-payment of stipend has pushed them to a point of desperation.

Meanwhile, Wenlock’s Medical Superintendent H.R. Rajeshwari Devi told reporters that stipend is not being paid following objections raised by the CAG. He had objected to payment of stipend to students from KMC, Mangaluru, and JJM Medical College, Davangere, in 2016-17.

The department, however, has responded saying that the students were entitled for stipend as per the Government Order and that they have been serving government hospitals. The Deputy Commissioner too has urged the government to pay them stipend, she added.