Selling of the Medical Seats near Bubble Burst: lower percentiles #NEET

Now, super specialty medical seat cut-offs slashed to 20 percentile MUMBAI: Post-graduate doctors scoring as low as 20 percentile in NEET-SS will now be eligible for superspecialty seats in the country. Despite two rounds of admissions, over one-fifth of the seats in the courses are lying vacant. To ensure these seats do not go wasted, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences slashed the cut-offs to 20 percentile from 50. In some of the courses, the raw scores for eligibility have dropped even to 188 or 217 out of 600. 2/10/23, 6:39 PM Now, superspecialty medical seat cut-offs slashed to 20 percentile.

Lowering NEET Percentile In PG or SS Making seats available at a lower percentile (15 -20) in post graduate and Super specialities courses will jeopardize the already crumbling quality of Medical Education and will result in bidding for the seats.

This potpourri portends to be a travesty of quality, not just of medical education but more seriously, of the quality of doctors. Allotment of medical seats is being left to the vagaries of populism and commercialism, through a false sense ‘the illusion of merit’ secured via NEET. Admission criteria whittled down to mere 10-20 percent, will result in an irreversible and regressive compromise with quality of doctors. Will patients approve such dizzying choice and at what cost?

Going by selection of candidates as doctors, if given a choice, by which a patient will like to get treated? A candidate who scored 20 % marks or a person getting 60% or 80% marks. NEET eligibility getting lower and a candidate getting around 20 % of marks may be able to secure a degree to treat patients. What will be the deciding factor? The criteria as to why a person with 60% marks not getting a seat and another with 20% marks will be able to secure. It will depend upon, whether a candidate is able to pay the exorbitant fee or not. Present system and mechanism of admission permit and accept such huge variation! That strange equation is acceptable in lieu of money paid!

Lowering NEET Percentile In PG or SS is an illusion of merit. Overplayed narrative of fewer doctors in the country, rather than a system for proper utilization is an effort to increase numbers of doctors is associated with dilution of merit. But this goal needs to be achieved with preserving quality of medical education.

Selling the medical seats is heading towards bubble burst, when despite declining demand for poor quality and expensive medical education, new private colleges being approved along with lowering merit to a dismal percentage.

Future doctors getting admissions by scoring just 10-20 percent of marks, poor teacher student ratio, seats being awarded to highest bidder are few pointers to the poor quality of medical education. Few years back NEET percent system was changed to percentile and now the bar is lowered further, just to accommodate more ‘bidders’ with less marks, to be able to buy medical seats.

Now, super specialty medical seat cut-offs slashed to 20 percentile

MUMBAI: Post-graduate doctors scoring as low as 20 percentile in NEET-SS will now be eligible for superspecialty seats in the country. Despite two rounds of admissions, over one-fifth of the seats in the courses are lying vacant. To ensure these seats do not go wasted, the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences slashed the cut-offs to 20 percentile from 50. In some of the courses, the raw scores for eligibility have dropped even to 188 or 217 out of 600. 2/10/23, 6:39 PM Now, superspecialty medical seat cut-offs slashed to 20 percentile.

On February 8, the board issued a circular announcing the special mop-up round in NEET-SS counselling and also the revised cut-offs in different specialty groups. The schedule for the mop-up round will be released soon. An official from the ministry of health and family welfare said that approximately 1,000 seats are vacant out of close to 5,000 superspecialty seats in the country. The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association India had requested the Centre to relax the eligibility criteria to ensure there is no wastage of seats, after receiving representations from aspirants, said Dr Kulsaurabh Kaushik, a member. He said sometimes seats go vacant in private colleges because of higher fees. Dr Avinash Supe, former dean of KEM Hospital, said, “Total SS seats in the country have gone up tremendously in recent years and students have become selective. For instance, in the surgical group, many are now preferring urology, gastrointestinal (GI) surgery and surgical oncology, whereas there is not much demand for paediatric, or cardiovascular and thoracic surgery. You need larger set-ups for these, which many cannot invest in. On the contrary, urology and GI surgeries need smaller set-ups and there is a demand too,” said Supe. He added in some courses, supply is higher than demand in the country. For a long time, even KEM did not get students for courses such as paediatric surgery. Last year, the Centre brought down the cut-off to 15 percentile after seats remained vacant in superspecialty courses.

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February 10, 2023 0

Violence against doctors: No support – Saviours need to save themselves

No separate law to prohibit violence against doctors, healthcare professionals: Centre More of a law and order issue, the physical assault on doctors reflects that they are serving an uncivilized society. Such news is viewed by medical community anxiously and is definitely a poor advertisement for younger generation to take medicine as profession. The medical students need to think, why they wish to enter medical profession in such an unsupportive environment? Strangely media, courts, prominent people, celebrities, human right commission, right activists are little concerned about the blatant injustice done towards doctors. This again brings forth the hypocrisy of our society and law enforcement agencies, which otherwise cry hoarse about human rights, but practically doctors (while they save others), need to fend for themselves when ugly situations arise. NEW DELHI: The Central government has decided not to enact separate legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other healthcare professionals, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

More of a law and order issue, the physical assault on doctors reflects that they are serving an uncivilized society. Such news is viewed by medical community anxiously and is definitely a poor advertisement for younger generation to take medicine as profession. The medical students need to think, why they wish to enter medical profession in such an unsupportive environment?

Strangely media, courts, prominent people, celebrities, human right commission, right activists are little concerned about the blatant injustice done towards doctors. This again brings forth the hypocrisy of our society and law enforcement agencies, which otherwise cry hoarse about human rights, but practically doctors (while they save others), need to fend for themselves when ugly situations arise.

NEW DELHI: The Central government has decided not to enact separate legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other healthcare professionals, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.

In a written reply, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said that a draft of the Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019 was prepared and was also circulated for consultations.

“Thereafter it was decided not to enact a separate Legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other health care professionals,” he said to a question on the reasons for the withdrawal of the Bill, which intended to protect healthcare professionals and institutions.

No separate law to prohibit violence against doctors & Health care workers

Mandaviya said that the matter was further discussed with relevant ministries and departments of government as well as all stakeholders, and an ordinance namely The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated on April 22, 2020.

However, the government, on September 28, 2020, passed the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020 under which acts of violence against healthcare personnel during any situation were considered cognizable and non-bailable offences.

Speaking with TNIE, Dr Rohan Krishnan, National Chairman, FAIMA Doctors Association, said that there have been many cases of violence against doctors and health professionals in the past few months inside the government hospitals, but the union health ministry has not taken their demand to have a separate law for providing safety and security to healthcare workers and doctors seriously.

“The government needed us during the Covid-19 pandemic and came out with rules and regulations. We also felt safe and secure. But now that Covid-19 is declining and we were able to bring normalcy, the government is showing its true colours. It is shameful,” he said.

“The government is not standing up to its promise of bringing a separate law to prohibit violence against doctors and healthcare professionals,” he added.

“On the one hand, it has failed to provide mental and physical safety and security to the doctors and healthcare professionals; on the other hand, instead of having verbal communication with us regarding this matter, the government is denying any scope of providing a separate law in the future. This is a very serious issue. We will raise this issue at every level,” Dr Krishnan said.

Under the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, the commission or abetment of acts of violence or damage or loss to any property is punishable with imprisonment for a term of three months to five years, and with a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,00,000.

In case of causing grievous hurt, imprisonment shall be for a term of six months to seven years and with a fine of Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 5,00,000.

In addition, the offender shall also be liable to pay compensation to the victim and twice the fair market value for damage to property.

Since, law and order is a state subject, State, and Union Territory governments also take appropriate steps to protect healthcare professionals/institutions under provisions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)/Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the minister said.

To another question on the number of security guards hired/outsourced by government hospitals in the country, the Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar said that public health and hospitals are state subjects, therefore no such data is maintained centrally.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

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Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

February 8, 2023 0

Supreme Court simplifies rules on passive euthanasia& Living Will

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday modified its 2018 order on passive euthanasia to make the procedure of removal of (or withholding) life support from terminally ill patients less cumbersome for the patients, their families and the doctors by limiting the role played by government officials. While the requirement of setting up two medical boards — one primary and other review — to examine the medical condition of the patient has been retained, the SC has done away with the rule mandating that the district collector set up the review board. The court said both boards will be constituted by the hospital and there would be one nominee doctor of the district medical officer in the review board. The medical boards must take a decision on such cases preferably within 48 hours, it added.

While the current rules state that the consent of the judicial magistrate is required for conducting passive euthanasia, the new order by a five-judge bench of justices K M Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar says the magistrate just needs to be informed. While making the procedure for passive euthanasia less cumbersome, the Supreme Court on Tuesday also simplified the process of making a “living will”, an advance directive by a person wishing not to be put on artificial life support. While the earlier rule stipulated that a living will had to be made in the presence of two attesting witnesses and countersigned by the jurisdictional JMFC, the new order says such a will can be attested by notary or a gazetted rank officer. The process prescribed in2018 was onerous as it not only involved family members and doctors but also a judicial magistrate and collector as well as setting up of two medical boards before removal of life support systems and there was no prescribed time period for medical boards to give their opinion. As per 2018 guidelines, in the event a person became terminally ill with no hope of recovery, the treating physician had to ascertain the authenticity of the case from the JMFC. If the physician was satisfied, the hospital then constituted a medical board consisting of the head of the treating department and at least three expert doctors with 20 years of experience.

If the medical board certified that life support system could be removed, the hospital had to inform the collector who then had to constitute another medical board comprising the chief district medical officer and three expert doctors. If the review board allowed withdrawal of treatment, it had to convey the decision to the JMFC. The JMFC then had to visit the patient and, after examining all aspects, decide on whether the euthanasia directive could be implemented. Modifying the order, the bench said that medical practitioners with five year of experience can be part of the medical board. The court also agreed with the petition that there was no need to involve JMFC in the process of preparation of the living will. Times View: The new guidelines have been issued because the earlier guidelines were proving to be unworkable. It is good that the apex court has taken a relook on the subject. It is entirely possible that even these new guidelines may need to be revised in future. But the principle must be about making things easier for consent-givers without increasing the risk of misuse.

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Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

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Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

January 25, 2023 0

Supreme Court agrees to make Passive Euthanasia & Living Will rules workable

SC to tweak 2018 verdict to make passive euthanasia rules workable

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided to “tweak” its 2018 verdict on passive euthanasia to make the procedure and guidelines fixed by it workable, and said that it may fix a time frame within which medical boards would have to submit reports to remove life-support systems from a terminally ill patient. Admitting that the procedure prescribed by the apex court in 2018 was very onerous and time consuming, a five-judge constitution bench of Justices K M Joseph, Ajay Rastogi, Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and C T Ravikumar sought suggestions from the Centre and senior advocates Arvind Datar and Prashant Bhushan to make it workable without compromising with the safeguards put in place by the court four years ago while legalising passive euthanasia. The process prescribed in 2018 not only involves family members and doctors but also judicial magistrates and collectors. Besides, two medical boards need to be constituted before life-support system can be withdrawn. The verdict said the living will, or advance directive for not putting a person on artificial life-support system, has to be made in the presence of two attesting witnesses and countersigned by the jurisdictional judicial magistrate of first class (JMFC). In the event of a person becoming terminally ill, the treating physician shall ascertain the living will’s authenticity from the JMFC. If the physician is satisfied, the hospital shall then set up a medical board consisting of the head of the treating department and at least three expert doctors. If the medical board recommends removal of life support, the hospital shall inform the collector, who shall then constitute another medical board comprising the chief district medical officer and three expert doctors. If the board allows withdrawing treatment, it shall convey the decision to the JMFC before allowing life support to be withdrawn. JMFC shall visit the patient and, after examining all aspects, may permit implementation of the directive.

Seeking modification in the procedure, lawyers contended that time was crucial for terminally ill patients and the whole purpose of passive euthanisa was defeated due to the time taken by the process. That was the reason why there has not been a single case of passive euthanasia in the last four years despite it being legalised, they added.

Agreeing with their contention, the bench observed that dying in peace was dying with dignity, and suffering of a patient should not be prolonged due to the lengthy process. It said that the court could set a time limit for completion of the two-tier procedure without delay and also consider that a living be prepared like normal will without the mandatory presence of a judicial officer. The bench sought response from the Centre on whether it intended to frame a law for its regulation as the court had said in 2018. Paving the way for passive euthanasia, the apex court had in 2018 said, “It has to be stated without any trace of doubt that the right to live with dignity also includes the smoothening of the process of dying in case of a terminally ill patient or a person in PVS (persistent vegetative state) with no hope of recovery. A failure to legally recognise advance medical directives may amount to non-facilitation of the right to smoothen the dying process and the right to live with dignity.”

Supreme Court agrees to not involve judicial officers, collectors in ‘living will’ process

NEW DELHI: Amidst divergent opinions evading consensus on various points to make 2018 verdict on passive euthanisa workable on ground, the Supreme Court on Wednesday agreed in principle to keep judicial officer and district collector out of the process for making living will and setting up of medical board for removing life support system for terminally ill patients. Facing the onerous task to tweak 2018 verdict without modifying it and to continue with the safeguard put in place four years back, Justices KM Joseph, Ajay Rastogi Aniruddha Bose, Hrishikesh Roy and Justice CT Ravikumar are exploring ways to build consensus among parties, including the Centre, to make the process of making and executing living will or advance directive practical and less cumbersome for the patient. As the petitioner, represented by advocate Arvind Datar and additional solicitor general KM Nataraj, agreed that there was no need to involve judicial magistrate of first class (JMFC) in the process of preparation of will, the bench agreed that the living will can be attested by notary or a gazetted rank officer. As per 2018 verdict, the living will or advance directive, for not putting on artificial life support system, has to be made in the presence of two attesting witnesses and countersigned by the jurisdictional JMFC. The court also in principle agreed that collectors be kept out of the process and will take a call on who should be entrusted with the task to constitute secondary medical board.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

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Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

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NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

January 19, 2023 1

Comparison of AIIMS (medical) and IIT (Engineer) graduate with 5 years invested. Do doctors deserve better salaries?

Comparison of AIIMS (medical) and IIT (engineer) graduate with 5 years invested. Why doctors do not deserve better salaries? Let us compare the start of career for medical and engineering graduates. To have a balance, comparing apples to apples, comparison of AIIMS graduates (premier institute –medical) to IIT graduates (Premier institute -Engineering) looks justified. This goes without any need to emphasize that students selected in both are exceptionally brilliant and toppers of the country. Although this comparison is not a secret and everyone knows about it, but still it need an attention from a different point of view. It should be an eye opener not only to medical students or aspiring doctors but to the society as well. It projects the severe disparity to an extent of blatant injustice towards medical students. When engineering students after a course of 4 years (at 21 years of age )are placed with package of 1.2 to 3.6 crores (1-4 lakh dollars), the medical students are starting with internship. Medical students still need to study for at least 5 years more (at 21 years of age ) to start earning maximum 12 -15 lakh per annum

Let us compare the start of career for medical and engineering graduates. To have a balance, comparing apples to apples, comparison of AIIMS graduates (premier institute –medical) to IIT graduates (Premier institute -Engineering) looks justified. This goes without any need to emphasize that students selected in both are exceptionally brilliant and toppers of the country.

Although this comparison is not a secret and everyone knows about it, but still it need an attention from a different point of view. It should be an eye opener not only to medical students or aspiring doctors but to the society as well. It projects the severe disparity to an extent of blatant injustice towards medical students.

When engineering students after a course of 4 years (at 21 years of age )are placed with package of 1.2 to 3.6 crores (1-4 lakh dollars), the medical students are starting with internship. Medical students still need to study for at least 5 years more (at 21 years of age ) to start earning maximum 12 -15 lakh per annum ( 15 thousand dollars). It may be raised to 24-30 lakhs (30000 dollars) per annum after 10 years, still one tenth of their contemporaries from IIT. Remember we are talking about only premier institutes, what happens to others is still a matter of luck.

When engineering students earn crores, do jobs and get experience about the real world, medical students are worrying about the problems, which should not have been there in the first place. The common issues bogging down the medical students are trying to get into post graduate courses, inhuman duties lasting 24-48 hours, payment of unjustified fee of medical colleges, trying to fend off bond policies, court cases, bearing with assault on doctors, working in poor and inept health care infrastructure- just to name a few. With all these problems lingering for years, doctors remain unwise in worldly matters, financially illiterate and sitting ducks for punishments due to excessive regulation and unjustified moral burden.

This comparison is essential to be kept in mind by aspiring doctors when they choose medical career. The respect and money associated with the hard work to be a good doctor is no more available even to the best.

A Point to ponder for everyone, what is the reason for such disparity? Why doctors do not deserve better salaries? What is the need for aspiring doctors to choose lowly paid jobs for more hard work and more noble work? A fodder for thought for society and administrators as well.

IIT hiring: Domestic offer hits record Rs 1.8 crore

MUMBAI: After a lull in the first pandemic year, crore-plus job packages returned with a bang on premier IIT campuses. On the opening day of the season, several IITians entered the crore-plus salary club, as the highest domestic package touched an all-time high of Rs 1.8 crore and international offers crossed the Rs 2 crore mark. While Uber picked one student each from at least five IITs, including IITBombay and Madras, for a package of Rs 2.05 crore (or $274,000), one student at IIT-Roorkee received an international offer of Rs 2.15 crore ($287,550) and three others got domestic offers ranging from Rs 1.30 crore to Rs 1.8 crore. In the first slot at IITB, the highest offer after Uber came from cloud data management company Rubrik, with a Rs 90.6 lakh (or $121,000) package. Of the domestic roles, investment management firm Millennium picked students for a package of Rs 62 lakh in the first slot, while WorldQuant offered Rs 52.7 lakh and Blackstone Rs 46.6 lakh. IIT-Madras students get 176 offers in first session on day 1 ALSO READ IIT-BHU student bags Rs 2 crore package from US company in placement . The highest numbers of domestic offers were made by Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Airbus and Bain & Company. IT/software, core engineering and consulting were the leading sectors to hire from the institute in the first slot. As many as 11 international offers were made at IIT-Madras on day one, said professor CS Shankar Ram, adviser (training and placement), IIT Madras. The institute recorded 407 offers in the first session of the placements, its best ever, including 231 PPOs. In all, 11 students received offers that crossed Rs 1 crore and of them 10 got domestic offers and 13 students signed up for an international offer, of which 12 opted for packages less than Rs 1 crore to take up jobs in Japan and Singapore.

Record Rs 3.6cr offers to 3 from Delhi, Bombay, Madras IITs for Hong Kong posting

MUMBAI: Hong Kong and Singapore seems to be the destinations where IITians are heading to this placement season, with most big-ticket offers being offered by trading firms there. Jane Street, a quantitative trading firm, has picked at least one student each from IIT-Bombay, Delhi and Kanpur for its Hong Kong office for a record package of Rs 3.6 crore. These, however, were made as pre-placement offers (PPOs) before the season kicked off on December 1. Another high-frequency trading firm Quantbox Research has made an offer of Rs 1.6 crore at multiple IITs for its Singapore office. one IIT-Bombay student, there are other PPOs that have made offers to students of close to Rs 2 crore,” said a source at IIT-B. On-campus job offers have not touched the Rs 2 crore mark. “There are several Rs 1 crore job offers and there are 15 companies with international locations, On the first day of placements, IIT-Bombay had 46 companies interviewing candidates either online or in-person. Of the 250 job offers on Day 1, more than 175 were accepted. On Day 2, a total of 48 companies were at IIT-B. The highest package so far this year domestically is Rs 1.9 crore, while there are a good number of packages from international recruiters as well.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

December 4, 2022 1

Disposal of the Dead after Death-Environment Impact & Carbon Cost

Burning the bodies of the dead was an ancient rite and practice in India. It was observed among Buddhists, Hindus and Jains from well before the start of the Common Era, and was later adopted by Sikhs. Burning the dead historically helped demarcate these religious communities from Muslims and Christians, for whom burial was the norm, and from India’s Parsi community who exposed their dead on Towers of Silence. Burning bodies after death, originating at a time when India was still heavily forested, cremation may also have been environmentally more appropriate and sustainable than, for instance, the mummification practised in the dry desert air of ancient Egypt.

Burning Issues: Cremation and Incineration

In India, one estimate reveals that funeral pyres consume 6 crore trees annually and play a huge role in deforesting the country. Air pollution and deforestation are not the only environmental threats of cremation. They also generate large quantities of ash – around 50 lakh tonnes each year – which is later thrown into rivers, adding to their waters’ toxicity. The prolonged burning of fossil fuels for cremation results in around 80 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gas emissions per year, according to one estimate. It creates different hazardous gases, including dental mercury, which is vaporised and released into the environment leading to health hazards in the surrounding area. Many of these toxins can bio-accumulate in humans, including mercury – often from dental amalgams, but also from general bioaccumulation in the body. Cremation results in various other toxic emissions including persistent pollutants such as volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and heavy metals. An IIT Kanpur study in 2016 found that open-air cremations contribute 4% of Delhi’s carbon monoxide emissions. There are concerns for crematorium workers as well, who may be exposed to nuclear medicine treatments (chemotherapeutics/radiation), orthopaedic (implants) and pacemaker explosions, and nanoparticles.

. In order to tackle the environmental problems stemming from these sites, the Indian government and environmental groups have over the years tried to promote the use of electric crematoriums as an alternative way of cremation. Electric crematoriums largely unsuccessful, are expensive to run, and crucially, traditional rituals are made impossible.

Carbon Cost estimation -When people are cremated after death, the burning releases carbon into the air. Alkaline hydrolysis, in which the body is dissolved, has about a seventh of the carbon footprint of cremation, and the resulting fluid can be used as fertiliser. A Dutch study of the disposal of bodies found that the lowest amount of money that it would theoretically cost to compensate in terms of the carbon footprint per body was €63·66 for traditional burial, €48·47 for cremation, and €2·59 for alkaline hydrolysis. Composting or natural burial are alternatives.

New Delhi: The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has questioned the centuries-old tradition practised by Hindus to cremate dead bodies at the river banks, saying the method of burning wood leads to air pollution and also effects natural water resources.

Keeping in mind the growing level of pollution, the NGT said that there was a need to adopt environment-friendly methods like electric crematoriums and use of CNG and change the ‘mindset of the people’.

The NGT bench headed by Justice UD Salvi also directed the Union Environment Ministry and the Delhi government to initiate programmes to provide alternative modes of cremation of human remains, saying the traditional emitted hazardous pollutants in the environment.

“It is also the responsibility of the government to facilitate the making of the mindset of the citizens as well as to provide environment-friendly alternatives for cremation to its citizenry,” the bench further said.

The green panel said the traditional means of cremation caused adverse impact on environment and dispersal of ashes in the river led to water pollution.

If we are to survive the climate crisis then almost everything will have to change, including health care, end-of-life care, and how we dispose of the dead.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

November 15, 2022 0

SC Rejects Greedy decision by Govt & Private Medical College-Fee Hike

The Supreme Court set aside an Andhra Pradesh government order of 2017 prescribing a seven-fold increase in MBBS fees that made it ₹24 lakh per annum.

The Supreme Court in a judgment on Monday held that education is not a business to earn profit as it set aside an Andhra Pradesh government order of 2017 prescribing a seven-fold increase in MBBS fees that made it ₹24 lakh per annum.

Directing the private colleges to refund the amount collected in excess of the fees last fixed by the state government in 2011, a bench of justices MR Shah and Sudhanshu Dhulia said, “Education is not the business to earn profit. The tuition fee shall always be affordable.”

The order came on a petition filed by the Narayana Medical College challenging a September 2019 decision of the Andhra Pradesh high court striking down the fee increase and ordering refund to students admitted in the college since the academic year 2017-18. The apex court dismissed the petition with cost of ₹5 lakh to be borne equally by the petitioner college and state government and deposited in court within six weeks. The amount was directed for use in legal services by the Supreme Court Mediation and Conciliation Committee and the National Legal Services Authority.

The top court agreed with the conclusion made by the high court and said, “To enhance the fee to ₹24 lakh per annum, I.e., seven times more than the fee fixed earlier was not justifiable at all.” The aggrieved medical students who had to pay through their nose had said that the government order raising the fees issued on September 6, 2017 was done without awaiting the recommendation of the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC).

The bench held the order passed by the state government to be “wholly impermissible and most arbitrary”. The court even went to the extent of saying that the hike was done “only with a view to favour or oblige the private medical colleges.”

“Any enhancement of the tuition fee without the recommendation of the AFRC shall be contrary to the decision of this court in case of P.A Inamdar in 2005 and the relevant provisions of the 2006 AFRC Rules (prevailing in the state). The high court has rightly quashed and set aside the GO dated September 6, 2017.”

The students pointed out that in 2011, the tuition fee hike was introduced by the state after consulting AFRC. However, in 2019, the state acted solely on representations received from private medical colleges. Rule 4 of the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (for Professional Courses offered in Private, Unaided Professional Institutions) Rules, 2006 mandated the state to seek a prior report from AFRC before altering the fee.

This rule required AFRC to factor in the location of the institution, nature of professional course, cost of available infrastructure, expenditure on administration and maintenance, reasonable surplus required for growth and development of the institution, revenue foregone on account of waiver of fee in respect of students from reserved category or economically weaker sections (EWS) of the society.

The top court said, “Determination of fee/review of fee shall be within the parameters of the fixation rules and shall have the direct nexus on the factors mentioned in Rule 4 of the 2006 Rules…the state government enhanced the tuition fee at an exorbitant rate of ₹24 lakh per annum, almost seven times the tuition fee notified for the previous block period.”

The next question arose regarding refund as ordered by the high court in its order of September 24, 2019. The high court said that the colleges cannot take benefit of the unjust enrichment in fees that was wrongly increased. Accordingly, it asked the colleges to refund the students after adjusting the amounts payable under the earlier fee structure recommended by AFRC and issued in June 2011.

The bench upheld this part of the high court order and said, “The medical colleges are the beneficiaries of the illegal GO which is rightly set aside by the high court.” The bench was conscious of the hardships faced by students who arranged to pay the amount by obtaining loan from banks and financial institutions at high rate of interest. “The management cannot be permitted to retain the amount recovered or collected pursuant to the illegal GO,” it held.

The college told the Supreme Court that between 2011 and 2017, they incurred added expenses due to the requirement introduced in 2016 to pay stipend to students even as the fee remained unchanged since 2011. The bench told the college that this component would be compensated as and when the higher tuition fee is fixed by AFRC. However, the court did not permit the college to retain the illegally collected amount.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

November 12, 2022 0

How to Reduce Social Media Addiction-Digital Minimalism

The Demons of social media and online gaming has rewired the people’s mind to live life and remain in virtual world. The chaos and turmoil in the society can be linked to social media that exploits the deep wired craving of masses to know more about the “realities”. Once a curiosity is fired, each one at social media starts feeding something or other. In the mad game of TRP’s, clouts and engagements, these players cross ethical lines and create rifts. They literally hunt and scavenge news items that suit their narrative. They embellish it with more provocative words and share it with their name hoping to drive more engagement Conspiratorial and alarmist thinking is likely to keep people glued to social media.

Covid-19 pandemic worsened addiction to the internet among children. The footfall at psychiatric out-patient departments in hospitals, especially those offering help to kids hooked to the net, be it for online gaming, chatting with friends or sharing videos, offers a glimpse of the problem.

Digital Minimalism- break free from “internet compulsions”

Freedom, Cold Turkey, RescueTime, Toggl, StayFocusd, FocusMe, SelfControl, AntiSocial… They are not random words pulsed together in a blender, but names of some of the top apps that, ironically, help you stay away from your digital addictions. As Thakur said in Sholay, “loha lohe ko kaat-ta hai”, so now we need apps to stay away from apps. This farcical situation hides a deeper reality – too many of us are spending too much time online. So, amid the launch of 5G and other high-speed tech, a growing army of people doesn’t want to be addicted to social media and googling. They aspire to live frugal, almost ascetic, digital lives without completely switching off from the internet. It’s a trend called ‘digital minimalism’, and it is different from a ‘digital detox’ where you unplug completely. To illustrate, detox is what Mohityanche Vadgaon village in Maharashtra’s Sangli district does. A siren goes off at 7pm, and residents put their electronic devices away for 90 minutes. Children are encouraged to read while the older people meet and chat.

Digital minimalism, however, does not require complete withdrawal. Coined by author Cal Newport, it is a way of using technology in which you focus your online time on a few carefully selected tasks that strongly support the things you value. It advises against excessive use of gadgets.

Digital Minimalism- break free from “internet compulsions”

Digital minimalism is based on three tenets: clutter is expensive, optimization is critical, and intention is satisfying. The objective is that the usage should be intentional and controlled for a limited period of time. And the apps mentioned above are meant to stop you from jumping from one attention-diverting push notification to another. They can block other apps from operating, create blocklists, schedule apps to run only during a specific time of the day, and alert you about the excessive time spent online.

This philosophy is being discussed now, especially after the pandemic when people began spending more time online, adding that children aged 13-18 years have become more prone to digital addiction since the pandemic. The parents are taking their children to counsellors as they have become addicted to screens and feel isolated and tense when they have to interact with people in the real world. For them, online networking is secure and simple.” He advised gradually introducing such children to digital minimalism, to reduce their reliance and time spent on digital platforms. He also said it is critical for parents and adults to see if those who are addicted to digital devices have any anxiety issues. Because digital addiction has been observed in people who already have anxiety issues, these issues must be addressed first. WHO has classified excessive use of the internet and mobile phones as screen addiction, and provided a set of guidelines. There is certainly a 50% increase in screen time addiction cases post-pandemic, we should be more concerned about the changes that will occur with advancements, like the metaverse. Need to first introduce minimalistic practices, and then, in some cases, recommend mild medication to help people break free from their “internet compulsions”.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

November 8, 2022 1

A Child is Born Free till he chooses to be Doctor # Rohtak-Medicos-fight-Unjust-Bonds

Choosing medical career or being a doctor has become a struggle in present era. Aspiring doctors need to first think- why they want to be a doctor in such circumstances-enduring all kind of exploitation- from all corners of society?

Unable to give doctors their rightful, there has been an administrators’ wish to enslave medical profession. Arm chair preachers would just say “yes, as a doctor, they should do it as moral duty.” In a new era of consumerism, when patient is defined as consumer and medical industry controls medical profession and the financial boundaries. All components of medical industry want their pound of flesh from hard work of doctors and nurses. Every day routine issues turning into medico-legal hassles have put doctors in the corner, resulting in severe distraction from real point of intention-treatment of patients.

Struggling to get admission in medical college, slogging in wards to learn and earn degrees, work in inhuman conditions, listen to endless abuses, tolerate the false media criticism, dragged in courts for alleged negligence, work with fear of physical assaults, work without proper infrastructure and manpower, endangering their own lives, exploited by medical industry and administrators, poorly paid and still not respected.

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

MBBS medical students protest against Haryana Govt Bond Policy-Rohtak

Educating a doctor cost less what medical colleges claim- a global phenomenon.

Instead of often repeated statements about high expense on running medical college and projecting it as a hard fact, the amount spent on medical students by all medical colleges should be made transparent by all institutions. The frequent statement is made that cost of making a doctor is very high and gleefully propagated by the private medical colleges to extract millions out of young medical students .

Such statements without any actual public data is repeated to the extent that it is firmly entrenched in public mind without any real evidence.

Projection of high cost of making a doctor is the reason with an intention to exploit the young doctors in various ways to get cheap labour and extract millions from aspiring doctors by medical colleges.

MBBS medical students protest against Haryana Govt Bond Policy-Rohtak

MBBS medical students protest against Haryana Govt bond policy detained

In a crackdown on MBBS students protesting against Haryana government’s bond policy for government medical colleges, the Rohtak Police detained around 300 students in the early hours of Saturday and registered a First Information Report in this connection.

The police action came ahead of the visit of Governor, Chief Minister and Home Minister to PGI campus for the convocation of Pt. Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak.

He added that the students were now co-operating with the administration and a meeting was being facilitated between them and the Chief Minister soon after the convocation.

The Haryana government had come out with a policy to incentivise doctors to opt for government service in the State on November 6, 2020, saying that the candidates selected for MBBS degree course in government medical colleges need to execute an annual bond for ₹10 lakh minus the fee at the start of every academic year. The candidate can pay the entire bond amount without recourse to the loan or the State government will facilitate them for availing an education loan for this bond amount. As per the policy, the government will repay the annual instalments of the loan if the candidate obtains employment with the State government.

However, in view of the protests, the CM had three days ago announced that students need not pay the ₹10 lakh bond amount at the time of admission, but instead have to sign a bond-cum-loan agreement of the amount with the college and the bank.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system

The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.

November 6, 2022 0

Blowin’ In The Wind-Delhi Air Pollution: Colossal Administrative failure

An eight year old child –scared, sitting terrified in mother’s lap, feeling breathless and feeling a bit dizzy. News about rising levels of smog and pollution send shivers down her spine every year. Her mother closing all the doors of house and trying to avoid the fumes entering the room like ghosts from every small crevices, peepholes and slits. The mother prays for the smooth sail through these days as she knows very well that the season has come when the environment will be full of pollutants. The child will writhe with suffocation due to air pollution in the same proportion. The reasons for dangerous levels of air pollution can be multiple like vehicles, crackers or farm waste burning, but accumulate near the some cities due to geographical distribution and environmental factors. Irony is that it is someone else’s problem like farm waste burning and ball of a time with polluting crackers adds to child's suffering. Here the sufferer is not the real cause pollution. Unlike if someone smokes or drinks alcohol, it is the doer who is sufferer. But here the root cause of her trouble emanates from poor governance and administrative failure to control the irresponsible behaviour of few. Every year, many factors collectively add to enormous pollution and air becomes thick with smog and suspended particulate matter at a predictable time. It is a cause of breathlessness in children and adults and vulnerable to asthmatic attacks.

Blowin’ In The Wind Yes, and how many times can a man turn his head

And pretend that he just doesn’t see?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

Yes, and how many times must a man look up

Before he can see the sky?

And how many ears must one man have

Before he can hear people cry?

Yes, and how many deaths will it take ’til he knows

That too many people have died?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind

The answer is blowin’ in the wind

An eight year old child –scared, sitting terrified in mother’s lap, feeling breathless and feeling a bit dizzy. News about rising levels of smog and pollution send shivers down her spine every year. Her mother closing all the doors of house and trying to avoid the fumes entering the room like ghosts from every small crevices, peepholes and slits. The mother prays for the smooth sail through these days as she knows very well that the season has come when the environment will be full of pollutants. The child will writhe with suffocation due to air pollution in the same proportion. The reasons for dangerous levels of air pollution can be multiple like vehicles, crackers or farm waste burning, but accumulate near the some cities due to geographical distribution and environmental factors.

Irony is that it is someone else’s problem like farm waste burning and ball of a time with polluting crackers adds to child’s suffering. Here the sufferer is not the real cause pollution. Unlike if someone smokes or drinks alcohol, it is the doer who is sufferer. But here the root cause of her trouble emanates from poor governance and administrative failure to control the irresponsible behaviour of few.

Every year, many factors collectively add to enormous pollution and air becomes thick with smog and suspended particulate matter at a predictable time. It is a cause of breathlessness in children and adults and vulnerable to asthmatic attacks.

Like this one child, there are thousands of them and people from all ages suffer during this season because of mistakes and thrill of others. These sufferers, who are frustrated due to their plight, with no fault of theirs, have to undergo treatment and visit emergencies of the hospitals. This irresponsible behaviour of people puts burden on the medical services and the doctors, who are already overstretched due to workload. But it is only the doctors and nurses, who are visible round the clock, whereas people who have polluted the air and the administrators remain invisible. For many, it is very hard to understand the complexity of the situation. Patients many a times will rather tend to blame the doctors for their sufferings, poor treatment and difficulty in treatment, without realizing that constant pollution is the reason for poor response to treatment.

Why all of us cannot keep in mind the plight of such patients? Why the administrators wake up and come out of their slumber every year when AQI is more than 500 already?

There are no punishments for repeated administrative failures.

But inconsequential pleasure and poor governance should not be allowed to inflict health and life of others.

Delhi Air Pollution: AQI more than 500. Apart from climate change, air pollution is just another biggest environmental threat to human health at present. And with pollution levels worsening in the national capital and neighbouring regions, residents of Delhi have started complaining of several health problems like difficulty in breathing, tightness of chest, asthmatic symptoms, runny nose, sore throat, itchy and watery eyes. As the city has been waking up to a thick blanket of hazardous smog every morning since Diwali, Delhi hospitals are also witnessing a surge in the number of patients coming to OPDs with health issues. And it’s the elders and children, who have lower immunity levels, complained of breathing issues. The hazardous level of air pollution towards the end of October triggered a series of official measures such as shutting down construction work across Delhi and smoke-emitting factories.

It requires sincere administrative will and not merely tokenism to control such hazardous pollution.

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system