Young house-surgeons at government colleges who pursue their mandatory one-year of house surgeon-ship are disappointed by the government’s inefficiency.
Since their postings as interns in District Wenlock, Lady Goschen Hospital and other urban community health centres, these doctors have not received their stipend for the past ten months. The doctors have been submitting memorandums to ministers regarding this since August 2019. Though the Chief Minister ordered on releasing the pending stipend to interns, the order has been ignored by concerned officials.
According to Dr Chirantan Suhrid, current Interns Council President, in their 2014-15 batch of 250 students, 50 students including him had secured seats under government’s merit quota in Kasturba Medical College (KMC) through K-CET. He also added that their seniors faced similar hardships to get the stipend.
The Additional Chief Secretary (Department of Health and Family Welfare) had ordered the Directorate of Medical Education to streamline the payment of stipend to stop payment of stipends. He directed JJM Medical College in Davangere and Wenlock Hospital to pay the stipends from their ARS (Arogya Raksha Samithi) accounts.
However, according to the information obtained under RTI by interns revealed that as on March 31, 2019, the ARS account had Rs 2.75 crore.
“The money available in ARS was not sufficient to clear the pending stipend payment. Money collected under the Arogya Karnataka Scheme should be utilised for the hospital’s expansion and developmental programmes,” said Dr Rajeshwari Devi of Wenlock Hospital. She defended her decision to not release stipend from ARS fund.
She also added that deputy commissioner had written a letter to Directorate of Medical Education on releasing the stipend for interns. “We have highlighted in the letter how the health care services in the hospital will be crippled if interns decided to seek a transfer to another hospital,” she said.

Source: Deccan Herald.

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