Doctors decry hike in MBBS fee

FARIDKOT/AMRITSAR: The almost 80% fee hike announced for MBBS courses in government medical colleges from the current academic session by the Punjab government has come in for criticism from all quarters.

Calling for protests, some doctors called it an attack on youngsters wanting to become doctors, questioning the timing, especially when MBBS students were doing emergency duties in Covid-19 wards in hospitals. “This policy is an attack on future medicos, the fee hike came when the MBBS students are doing their duties in emergency wards and other departments of the hospitals where Covid-19 patients are being treated,” said Dr Jaspinder Partap Singh, president, Resident Doctors’ Association, Government Medical College, Amritsar.

“It’s a wrong step as it will put extreme financial burden on the students,” said Dr SS Gill, former vice-chancellor, Baba Farid University of Health Sciences. Students from financially disadvantaged families would be discouraged. Non-meritorious students from rich families will

get admissions instead of those who are meritorious, which could impact quality, he said.

GOVT SHOULD NOT ‘LOOK FOR PROFITS’

Adding that there were medical students in colleges from rural areas and poor families, he said: “There is a huge shortage of doctors in rural areas in the state. The government should provide medical education to meritorious students for a low fee so we comparatively lower than that of Punjab medical colleges.”