Maha resident docs demand freedom from bond policy

MUMBAI: On the heels of growing demands in other states over doing away with the bond policy for doctors, Maharashtra resident doctors have also appealed to state authorities about cancelling the mandatory services after completion of postgraduate medical courses from state-run medical colleges.

In a letter written by the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) to the medical education minister and officials of the Directorate of Medical Education and Research, the doctors also indicated that they may also join their colleagues from Haryana in the protest against the bond.

The letter dated November 9 enumerated the many ways in which the bond service hinders the academic and professional opportunities of medical postgraduates. They point out that there are not even sufficient senior residency posts to accommodate the 1,200 resident doctors that pass out of the medical colleges every year. They said they were also unhappy about the increasing incidences of violence against resident doctors, the irregularity in their being paid their stipends and the less than satisfactory living conditions in the hostels or residential quarters provided to them.

Medical students spend almost 12 years of their lives in academics – five-and-a-half years of undergraduate studies, three years of post-graduate studies, followed by three years of super speciality training. “If you were to add a one-year bond after each stage of training, we would be done with our education after 15 years. It is only after this that we get to decide what we can or want to do in our career,” said MARD president Dr Avinash Dahiphale.

In order to save these three years, a lot of well-to-do students opt to pay lakhs of rupees to be freed of the bond which a doctor from a not-so-well-off family can’t do.

Dr Pranav Jadhav, chief advisor of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) questioned why the burden of paying back to the government institutions only falls on doctors.