PG Times

  In a bid to check the depleting number of specialists in the Provincial Medical and Health Services (PMHS), the UP has made it mandatory for government doctors seeking the NOC to pursue post-graduate courses to serve in the cadre for at least 10 years. Those who don't do so will have to pay back Rs 1 crore as penalty to the government. "As per the rule, the in-service doctors who undertake PG courses will have to give in writing that they would return to the primary cadre upon completion of their programme and serve for a minimum period of 10 years. In case they fail, they will have to pay a fine of Rs 1 crore to the state exchequer,” said additional chief secretary Amit Mohan Prasad. Rules in this regard had been framed through an order issued by the Yogi Adityanath government in April 2017. Prasad issued a fresh order on Thursday to enforce this order strictly. The same order also stated that in-service doctors who leave the PG course mid-way will be debarred from taki...

Ayurveda practitioners are seeking equivalence with allopathic doctors in doing certain surgeries, but there seems to be a vast difference in the amount of training received in the two systems. Everything from the minimum number of beds in teaching hospitals to bed occupancy and the outpatient attendance required in a medical college to be allowed to do undergraduate and postgraduate training is much less for ayurveda colleges than for allopathic ones. Barely a quarter of the 414 ayurveda colleges have 100 seats. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of UG ayurveda seats are in colleges with 60 seats or less, which need to have just a 60-bedded teaching hospital with 40% occupancy, or about 24 beds occupied. Of the 60 beds, beds that must be kept aside for shalakya tantra and shalya tantra (surgeries) are just 25. In comparison, almost all MBBS colleges have at least 100 MBBS seats and for that they need a 500-bed teaching hospital with 75% occupancy (375 beds) and 120 beds kept aside for general ...

It is impossible for Ayurveda to incorporate surgical techniques while ignoring the other domains of modern medicine The basic requirement of medical practice is the safety of the patient. Surgery is a branch of medicine in which poor training can have dramatic and disastrous results. This is the strongest argument against the ill-advised move of the government of India to allow graduates in Ayurveda to practise surgery. Apprenticeship is key Surgery in the present era is an interdisciplinary endeavour. A well-trained anaesthesiologist keeps the patient free of pain. Other specialist doctors address any other illnesses that the patient has before surgery can be safely performed. The well-trained surgeon must have a good knowledge of the structure of the human body in health and disease. This is one branch of medicine where knowledge can only be acquired through apprenticeship — that is, the learner needs to be guided by an expert. It takes many years and much exposure before a gr...

How Army doctors set a record of the world’s highest-altitude major surgery S.G. Vombatkere The soldier protects our nation’s borders with determination, grit and courage, living and fighting all along our Himalayan borders from Ladakh in the west to Arunachal in the east. A soldier’s life in forward areas is extremely tough. In high-altitude areas (HAA, in Army parlance), it is doubly so because the oxygen intake is halved. Low oxygen, combined with sub-zero temperatures further lowered by wind-chill, seriously affects physical efficiency, as anyone who has served at altitudes of over 12,000 ft (3,700 m) knows. Even routine activities are necessarily slow and difficult, sometimes even painful. Prolonged isolation and loneliness are an additional psychological burden. Extreme cold, low oxygen intake and treacherous terrain combine as an ever-present risk to life and limb for every soldier, quite apart from the risks of the enemy’s bullet, grenade, bomb and shell. In these harsh...

  Dr Anant Bhan Is allowing Ayurvedic doctors to perform surgery legally and medically tenable? What are the issues around allowing non-allopathic surgeons to receive training for various procedures? The story so far: On November 20, the Central Council of Indian Medicine, a statutory body set up under the AYUSH Ministry to regulate Indian systems of medicine, issued a gazette notification allowing postgraduate (PG) Ayurvedic practitioners to receive formal training for a variety of general surgery, ENT, ophthalmology and dental procedures. The decision follows the amendment to the Indian Medicine Central Council (Post Graduate Ayurveda Education) Regulations, 2016, to allow PG students of Ayurveda to practise general surgery. Is allowing non-allopathic doctors to perform surgery legally and medically tenable? The passing of the National Medical Commission Act in 2019 allowed for the formalisation of proposals to induct mid-level care providers — Community Health Providers...

  A leading doctors’ body in West Bengal has strongly opposed the Centre’s decision to train practitioners of alternative medicine to perform surgical procedures, saying such ‘crosspathy’ or ‘mixopathy’ was anti-people and anti-science. Last week, the Central Council of Indian Medicine issued a notification allowing post-graduate scholars of the Shalya and Shalakya streams of Ayurveda to independently perform 58 kinds of surgeries including those related to the eye and the ears, nose and throat. The Council subsequently issued a ‘clarification’ saying these surgeries were being performed by Ayurveda professionals “since beginning” and that all scientific advances including standardised terminologies were inheritances of entire mankind and no group could claim monopoly over these. “We don’t have any disregard for other streams of medicine; in fact, we have great respect for ancient medicine. But just as how I am not competent to prescribe Ayurvedic medicines, can an Ayurveda pra...

  The Supreme Court has ordered that 50% reservation for in-service doctors (doctors in government service) in super-specialty courses shall not be implemented in the current academic year. The order came after petitions challenged the stance taken by Kerala High Court and Madras High Court on the matter. According to reports, a Supreme Court bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao passed the orders on Friday, in which it said that the reservation for doctors in government service for postgraduate super-specialty courses shall not be implemented in the current academic year (2020-21). The court was hearing a petition that challenged the Madras HC’s order allowing the state government to reserve 50% seats in postgraduate medical courses for doctors in government service.   The government of Tamil Nadu had passed a government order (GO) on November 7 providing 50% reservation in post-graduate and postgraduate super-specialty courses for doctors who are in government service. T...

The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its order on the interim question whether Tamil Nadu and Kerala should provide 50% in-service reservation for admissions to super-specialty medical courses in government colleges for the current academic year.  A Bench led by Justice L. Nageswara Rao was hearing a batch of pleas filed by doctors, including postgraduate holders qualified in NEET 2020, challenging reservation of seats for in-service candidates in super-specialty courses. The Tamil Nadu government argued that there was an acute need for super-specialty qualified doctors both in the medical academia and in practice.  The States argued that preparation for admission to these courses had started almost immediately following the Constitution Bench judgment on August 31. The judgment had empowered States to devise a separate channel of entry for in-service doctors. “State has the legislative competence and authority to provide for a separate source of entry for in-service ...

The Union Health Ministry Wednesday asked state governments to initiate steps for reopening of medical colleges from December 1 or before it, but with strict adherence to all Covid-19 related guidelines. Educational institutions in the country have been closed since March in view of the coronavirus pandemic. In a letter to the chief secretaries and the administrators of all states and Union Territories, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan also suggested making non-Covid beds available in sufficient numbers in affiliated medical college-hospitals to facilitate undergraduate training. The Health Ministry has obtained concurrence from the Ministry of Home Affairs for re-opening of medical colleges, the letter mentioned. “Accordingly, the states and UTs may take necessary steps to open the medical colleges on or before December 1, 2020,” the health secretary said in his letter dated November 25. “Needless to say, all SOPs/guidelines with respect to social distancing and prevention of spr...

Duty hours of resident doctors as per Central Residency Scheme.

Orthopaedics junior resident terminated, will not be able to complete DNB course A junior resident doctor from North Delhi Municipal Corporation''s (North DMC) Hindu Rao Hospital was terminated by the hospital authorities allegedly after he posted a video on his social media page complaining about the mismanagement in the hospital. "The Doctor in the Orthopedics department is terminated from his services with immediate effect for bringing disrepute to the institution," a letter from the hospital said. The doctor, however, has refuted the allegations made by the hospital administration and claimed that the termination came after he distributed face shields procured through an NGO, among the residents doctors. "I had distributed face shields among the doctors which I got from an NGO, but the Medical Superintendent of the hospital told me to return them. I even tried getting them back but the other doctors denied returning them, and now this has caused...

There is no emergency in a pandemic This article is for the healthcare workers, doctors, surgeons, nurses, aides, EMS and all staff. This article should be read along with many news reports of doctors dying from COVID-19 throughout the world. Do not repeat the same mistakes that they made. If you do not have proper PPE, do not go in. No matter what. There is no emergency in a pandemic. You as a healthcare worker are a force multiplier. Your training and experience are invaluable moving into this crisis. So, you're going to be faced with some very difficult moments. You're going to have to put your needs first. I'm speaking specifically about PPE and your safety. If you're an ICU doctor or an ICU nurse, and you become infected, not only are you out of the game for potentially weeks (or killed), but your replacements could be people without your expertise. Your remaining co-workers are short-staffed now, more likely to make mistakes and become ill themselves...

Social distancing of entire populations may be inevitable for countries wishing to suppress the novel coronavirus, scientists have said in a study that has also predicted tens of thousands of deaths even with the strongest measures. The study by Imperial College, London, has suggested that effective suppression of the epidemic would require a combination of four interventions — social distancing of entire populations, home isolation of positive cases and home quarantine of their family members and closure of educational institutions. The coronavirus, reported by China to the World Health Organisation on December 31, 2019, has since then spread to 164 countries, infected 212,000 and killed over 8,700 people. Epidemiologist Neil Ferguson and his colleagues who used mathematical models to predict coronavirus epidemic scenarios have shown that suppression — an effort to prevent an infected person from transmitting the virus to even one other person — is the “only viable s...

The Medical Council of India’s board of governors has approved increasing postgraduate medical seats for MD and MS programmes by over 4,800 to 36,192 for the next academic session, an official said on Monday. BoG chairman and Niti Aayog member V.K. Paul said the increase is more than the total number of additional seats created in the past five years. “The Narendra Modi government in 2014 had promised to double PG and UG medical seats by 2024. So, in that direction the board of governors-vested with power of the Medical Council of India has given its approval to increase postgraduate medical seats (broad speciality) in 2020-21 session by 4,807. “So, as a result, in the new academic session counselling, 36,192 PG medical seats (MD/MS, broad speciality) will be available,” Paul said. Paul also said the capacity expansion would improve tertiary care in the country. “In 2020-21 academic session, approximately 44,000 postgraduate medical seats (36,192 MD/MS seats a...

Indian Council of Medical Research’s warning that India has 30 days to halt the onset of Stage-III or community transmission of the novel coronavirus must kick off wider testing. ICMR has said that disease transmission is now limited to those with travel history to affected countries and those in contact with them. This is not as reassuring as it sounds. For every traveller reaching India and subsequently seeking medical help, there are too many loose ends in their whereabouts for public health authorities to tie up. Moreover, screening efforts at airports miss out many asymptomatic travellers. This is where wider testing and greater access to testing facilities can nip community transmission in the bud. The 60-odd labs notified by ICMR for testing swabs – and a similar number of sample collection centres – can conduct nearly 5,000 tests daily. But these get just 60-70 samples per day according to ICMR officials. Large, populous states like UP, Bihar and Rajasthan having just 2-...

Online counselling likely to start from 12th March 2020.

By Dr Jimmy Mathew It was 2006. I had become a Plastic Surgeon. After four and a half years of MBBS, I did One year of that rotating slave work called internship. Then three years of surgical residency at JIPMER. I had done eighty to hundred hours of work per week in those years, and I didnt know what a weekend really was. Of course, I knew drunken nights, and smoked for two years during that period, and my eating habits were the worst in the world. Have no doubts- my arteries were hardened, head baldened and a little of the nicer part of my predisposition erased permanently. Three more years of mostly assisting, retracting, dressing wounds, taking calls and pointlessly sleepless nights made me A Plastic Surgeon. Now I had a wife and a daughter. No weekends. It was immediately after that I joined a well known private hospital as the third person in the Plastic Surgery team. I was offered thirty thousand rupees a month. I accepted. The centre was very busy and well known for m...

Sameera Jahagirdar says MBBS textbooks continue to ‘criminalise’ a transgender Sameera M. Jahagirdar is now going to take her fight for the rights of LGBT+ to the Medical Council of India, which has not yet recognised the need to restructure the MBBS curriculum in which the textbooks continue to criminalise a transgender or a homosexual or anyone who does not fall within the two-gender sexual orientations of society. Her journey as a woman trapped in a man’s body and taking up the medical profession to unravel the biological enigma of the human body was one of continuous trauma. The fight within herself to realise her sexual orientation leading later to gender identity and with society’s unrelenting stand on homosexuality and transgender was too much to handle as she had no one to talk to about what she was going through. “I used to internalise everything that it damaged my psyche,” said Dr. Jahagirdar, Assistant Professor, Department of Critical Care Medicine, Mahatm...