‘Doctors who get educated at the expense of the poor can’t shy away from serving them’
The Madras High Court comes down heavily on the trend of postgraduate medical students of government colleges attempting to get exemption from their obligation to serve in public hospitals after their studies. It dismisses writ petitions led by two doctor
The Madras High Court has come down heavily on the trend of students securing admission to postgraduate medical courses in government colleges by signing bonds to serve in public hospitals for two years after their studies, but subsequently attempting to wriggle out of the obligation.
Justice S.M. Subramaniam said that those who got educated at the expense of the poor could not seek an exemption from serving the poor at government hospitals.
Dismissing writ petitions led by two doctors against their bond period, he said, “Such an attitude was opposed to public interest and unacceptable.”
“The prime object of medical profession is to render service to humanity. Doctors cannot adopt a pick and choose attitude while treating patients... Denial of treatment to poor patients in government hospitals in spite of agreeing to the same, under the bond, goes against the ethos of medical ethics,” he observed.
The judge went on to state: “It is not as if the doctors are forced to treat patients for free throughout their career. The bond is such that it operates only for a particular period of time...It is nothing but a service to humanity and to the poor sections of society
Doctors cannot adopt a pick and choose attitude while treating patients, the court said.
who are unable to get paid treatment.”
He recorded the submission of Government Advocate K. Tippu Sulthan that
those who gain admission to government medical colleges pay a paltry sum towards fees, and it was the State that spent crores of rupees of taxpayers’ money to get the medical students educated.
Service amid pandemic
The law ocer also said that the government paid a monthly stipend to every postgraduate medical student, and therefore, they could not cite the services rendered by them during COVID-19 as a reason to seek an exemption from serving in government hospitals after the completion of their studies.
It was brought to the notice of the court that the government had also taken a considerate view of the representations made by many postgraduate students and reduced their bond period from two years to one year through a
Government Order issued on October 27, 2023.
After recording the submissions, the judge said that it was not a case of the petitioners having been forced to sign the bonds. The petitioners, being well-educated doctors, had signed the bonds, along with three sureties, with the full knowledge of what they were committing themselves to. Having done so, the petitioners could not refuse to serve in government hospitals by citing the yeoman service rendered by the entire medical community during the pandemic. The government, too, had no justi able reasons to reduce the bond period after the petitioners had executed them, he said.