Medical students oppose longer duration MBBS course plan

Students demanded the compulsory one year rural posting be either incorporated within the existing MBBS course structure or included as part of the PG curriculum

Medical students today held a protest here against the proposal for increasing the duration of the MBBS course from the existing 5.5 years to 6.5 years with the addition of a compulsory one-year rural posting for admission into post-graduate programmes.

At the protest which was held in front of Nirman Bhawan, the students demanded that instead of increasing the course duration, the compulsory one year rural posting be either incorporated within the existing MBBS course structure or included as part of the PG curriculum.

"We are not against rural postings, but we want the one- year rural internship to be included as a part of our curriculum either during the MBBS course or at the post- graduate stage," said Dr Anirudh Lochan, national secretary of the Young Doctors Association of India.

Police had to use water cannon to disperse the protesters when they attempted to enter the premises to meet the Union Health Minister, Ghulam Nabi Azad.

Around 2,000 doctors from AIIMS, University College of Medical Sciences, Lady Hardinge Medical College, Vardhman Mahavir Medical College and Maulana Azad Medical College took part in the protest.

At around 3 P.M., the Health Secretary met some of the protesting students and assured them that their concerns would be looked into.