Save Doctors

Yeah, as if we are an endangered species.

Hello.. Been some time, I have been off. Nothing much to write about I guess. Although recently something has happened that has brought me back to writing.

It has a lot to do with the relationship between doctors and patients, and the growing mistrust. And it has something to do with apathy of the government towards it or the lack of sufficient infrastructure for health.

In my line of work as an Emergency doctor, I was in constant flux with unruly patient and their relatives. I got man-handled, received death threats and all that. I tried talking to my seniors and all they had to say was that I was the one who was highly qualified and better educated. I couldn't break down so easily. I had to be the one able to handle my patient and their attendants effectively. So.. I tried..

But let me tell you, it is tough. Considering the workload on each doctor because of the abysmal doctor-patient ratio, as humans, it sometimes becomes impossible to take the stress. And to top it when government fails in providing sufficient infrastructure, it is the doctor who receives the blow standing in the front line. How? Let's examine what is happening in Maharashtra.

In a place called Dhule, a person met with a bike accident. He was rushed to the nearest hospital. The first doctor they met told them that the patient was a case of head injury and since the hospital had neither a CT nor a neurosurgeon, it would have been best to take the patient somewhere the facilities were available. The relatives didn't take kindly to that and started beating up the doctor. The doctor sustained severe injuries on his skull, chest and elsewhere. He is also reported to have lost his vision on the one eye he was injured. Here are the details.

There is a YouTube video of the incident. One can be seen here.

It didn't stop there. Supposedly, the relatives, who assaulted, were jailed, and one guy committed suicide in custody. And the relatives wanted to file a case against the doctor for that, too.

Next was some news about residents being beaten up at another place in Maharashtra, Sion. This particular resident got slapped by a patient's relatives. This is his story about the incident.

Episodes preceding this incident and following this incident led to a huge cry by doctors there for their justice. A thread on twitter has been posting regular updates on the cases.

So, while the residents doctors were on strike, the senior doctors took over to fill in the gap as much as possible. But some people can be so incorrigible. One relative allegedly assaulted a female paediatrician, whose statement can be seen here.

Doctor in Maharashtra took to the street protesting, while those outside supported the strike on social media. Various tweets and posts on Twitter and Facebook could be seen.

Now one would expect the government to come in and act responsibly. But Bombay High court threatens doctor to resume duty.

Elsewhere doctors were suspended. It's a total chaos. The one place you seek justice, threatens you. A simple demand of increased security is not being met by the government.

On the other hand, many patients were suffering too. They were caught between this fight between debilitated doctors and apathetic government. Some 58 patients were reported to die during this strike. Everybody now blames these deaths on doctors.

Some senior doctors have tried exploring the problems. They have some well written articles on the web:

1. India versus "The Doctor"
2. We need to protect our junior doctors

This is what I last heard of the strike. (will try to keep the post updated as the matter proceeds)

Update:  Seems like the strike has been called off to an extent. Although the protest continues.

Looks like the political parties are playing their roles too. Details here.

I hope the matter resolves as much as possible. But it has not been eliminated yet. This rabbit hole goes deeper. The growing mistrust between doctors and patients is a social failure. Each one of us has to work towards a better society where everyone can live as healthy as possible. The mistrust needs to be ameliorated. Health is a joint venture, not the sole responsibility of a doctor.

Some blogs like Health Curator, Unwrap Health, etc. are trying to create awareness.

For a better future. Peace and harmony.

Justice, Like Truth, is Relative to the Observer

A patient dies at the OT table. The doctors did what they could do. The head surgeon was good to follow the rules by the book while he carried out the surgery. He has no regrets. He did a good job. Other doctors agree. The operation was done "by the book". But… the  patients is dead. And the relatives are furious. They want an answer from the doctors.. They hate the doctors. But it doesn't matter… The doctor is right in his place. And the relatives are in theirs.. But the patient is dead.

Such is the case of NEET.. The lawyers, judges and the whole legal system did a good job. They did what they could do best.. Dramatic arguments. Flowery, nonsensical jargon. "Inevitable" delays. The judgement was long, but, sound and constitutional. Its just that the NEET was the patient, and we are the relatives..

I scurried through the long tedious judgement given by the "Honourable" judges.. All I could make out were as follows:

Religious and minorities are allowed to do whatever they want according to some Article 30. Take their own exams, choose their own students, according to their principles.. And when the question was asked, "To  what  extent  can  professional  education  be treated as a matter coming under minorities rights under Article 30", respected Mr. Salve replied, "…  a  minority institution may have its own procedure and method of admission  as  well  as selection of students, but such a  procedure  would  have  to  be  fair  and transparent and  the  selection  of  students  in  professional  and  higher educational colleges should  be  on  the  basis  of  merit. The  procedure selected for admission by the minority institution ought not to  ignore  the merit of  students  for  admission  while  exercising  the  right  to  admit students by the colleges aforesaid, as in that event, the  institution  will fail to achieve  excellence. The  said  procedure  should  not  amount  to maladministration." [point 25]

I found that line quite interesting (the one that I have highlighted in bold). It seemed to me that these judges and lawyers were immune to what was happening outside the Supreme Court..

One more thing I noticed, although it might not be relevant to this, that most of the articles were cited from the constitution were amended or made aeons ago.. 1956, 1964, 1976.. I saw one 1998-2000, but that was about the introduction of NEET, and well, it is dead now.. Somehow makes me feel archaic.

Another point that caught my eye was Mr. Parasaran's statement saying,  "the hard reality that emerges is that  private educational institutions are a necessity in the  present-day  circumstances. It is not possible today without them because  the  Governments  are  in  no position to meet the demand, particularly in  the  sectors  of  medical  and technical education, which call for substantial  investments  and  expenses. Mr. Parasaran submitted that  the  impugned  Regulations  were  not  in  the national interest and would only discourage good private institutions  being established by people dedicated to the cause of  providing  health  care  to all sections of the  citizens  of  this  country  and,  in  particular,  the marginalized sections in the metropolitan and rural areas."[point 56]

Again, I highlighted the points that interested me. Think of it, and you know how pathetic it is. It's inevitable that private companies work on profit, and high fees. Since Government has failed to fund the most important part of a country, it's health system.. I have watched respected Dr. Gulati express his concerns on the issue of privatization of healthcare as a primary cause of all the corruption ever since his appearance on Satyamev Jayate, a show that was hosted by Mr. Aamir Khan. But, I don't see anybody paying much heed to that..

Relevant to this I would also like to quote an article titled "Amartya Sen: India's dirty fighter". In it was written the following lines, ".. [Sen and Drèze] argue that India's overriding preoccupation with economic growth makes no sense without recognising that human development depends on how that wealth is used and distributed. What's the purpose of a development model that produces luxury shopping malls rather than sanitation systems that ensure millions of healthy lives, ask Drèze and Sen, accusing India of "unaimed opulence". India is caught in the absurd paradox of people having mobile phones but no toilets."

I tried to look for the Financial aspect of the Healthcare and I was amazed to find the data (which I have put in my post "Health in India". And I am sure that anybody would be shocked to look at the data. Just 1% of GDP invested by Government on health..

And then again, I was also wondering if Mr. Parasaran was talking about theseprivate medical colleges, when he talked about discouraging "good private institutions"..

Inflation and corruption are inherent to a Monetary Based Economy, thus the whole fight seems pointless when seen from that vantage point. To most of us NEET had a promise of something good, but it now has been destroyed under the religious and minority humbug. But that's fine by me. I mean, even they have their freedom, according to Article 30, or whatever. And using that as a cover, the corrupt private colleges will continue to do all the "business" they have been doing for so long.. And that would of course mean less of students getting selected by merit.. And one may ask, "how is that fair??!!" And the eloquent answer would be, "who said life would be fair!"

And there's this another argument that MCI is not the proper body to be conducting the exam, because the only things that an MCI can do…..well, are things that it doesn't do properly anyway, so of course carrying out one unified exam would be asking too much of it. MCI has had a past, with all those private colleges scams, director arrested, etc... So now when MCI wants to do something good, they are not being allowed to. So who is going to conduct the exam? That question stays unanswered..

I agree to one thing though. One cannot remove a faulty system and install another faulty system instead.. NEET may have been a good concept, but the pattern of the exam and the selection process was not proper.. Although people may argue that even CAT and USMLE exams are taken in such a way, but it must be noted that USMLE has 3 steps and CAT has the interviews.. Even these guys don't solely depend on just the exam. So, NEET is just a half copied, incomplete pattern, for a proper merit based exam, per se..

And there's another set of arguments that exams on different days may cause a different in markings and thus inappropriate rankings.. Tougher questions on a day may lead to a worse rank and easier on others may lead to better ranks.. This, I think, is a myth. Even USMLE, CAT, Manipal, and many others follow this pattern of online exam.. The Scaling is a bit complicated than one might usually think. Of course, considering the weakness in Mathematics (for most who had opted for bio), statistics could be bothering.. But a look at how CAT does the scoring, perhaps, may give one an idea at the complexity. I remember some even went out to do a survey with the DNB results to find out a co-relation, and never came out with any positive result.. Even I have been a bit sceptic about this method, but Mathematics, I know, is a strong tool, and can prevent any bias by proper use of statistics.. As they say, you are always afraid of what is unknown or incomprehensible to you. I have my faith with mathematics, and I happily let go off the paranoia now. But, like said before, the exam alone shouldn't be the deciding factor.

Another argument is what if we miss the day of the exam, there's no other exam if that exam is missed due to unavoidable circumstances.. Well, I guess the answer to that would be a provision to take the exam on another day, provided valid reasons are put, etc.. But then again these are methods of correcting the NEET system.. These arguments, which SHOULD have been a part of the case, were not. Because the case was about religious and minorities fighting for their freedom and saying how India secularism, unlike American secularism is a "bowl of salad and not a melting pot".

Of course there's a set of questions I'd like to ask..

Court in 2010 had announced that NEET will take place around 2011. But then AIIMS said they won't be able to conduct the test, it was postponed to 2012. Where were these private and minority institutes then? Why hadn't they put their case then and there? Why wait till the completion of the exam in Nov 2012!!?? And if they had made the case in early 2012, why had the case been transferred and delayed till December 2012? What were they waiting for? Why harass the students? What was the actual motive behind all this hullabaloo?  Economic growth, was it? Empty Swiss accounts probably?

As a medical student, all I want is a fair exam and admission to an institution, private or government, for my higher education. And most would agree with me here. Even if the old system prevails of AIPGMEE and state exams, and each of them had a transparent process of examination and admission, no one would have any problem whatsoever. Its this deficiency of a transparent system at the state and private exam level that has caused this uproar from our side at least, that's what I believe. It's true that India faces a shortage of doctors, but how does one solve that issue? Such cases and harassment just make medical students like us wish we just get out of this country, furthermore adding to the deficit. And the quality of medical education just goes down day by day, making us inefficient doctors..

Nonetheless, hoping for a better future.

Peace and out.

Related Link:

NEET: Govt may file review plea

Doldrums

Nowadays, people (including friends and family) ask me, "So, what are you up to these days, doctor? Which hospital? Are you a specialist yet?"; and all I can give is a wry smile and tell them about the situation of Indian medical education system and the NEET case..

The above question has entered the category where you don't ask a woman her age or a man his salary; or, in this case, a doctor about the NEET case/results!

Yesterday I saw a comment on my post by a concerned mother asking me about updates on the NEET-UG case. I gave her a site that I thought would help ease her stress, although in my heart I wanted to tell her to discourage her daughter to enter this profession.. I think most of my peers would agree with me.. Poor girl! She still has time to take a safer and better path! :-\ Such is the discontentment amongst medical students now..

Medical education is tough. Requires a lot of hard work. And its time consuming too! Tell me another graduation course that takes almost 6 years of study.. Most doctors dedicate the best part of  their life to serve the community.. And this is how the government and corporates reward us.

It's all about money.. All about the profits. It's no more about the merit or honor or the compassion.. It's just "good business". And the business has become so good that every time I see a research by a doctor, I wonder, is this research transparent? Or, is it just another hoax to perpetuate a disease or situation to profit!?  Health is no more the wealth, money is..

If you don't agree, tell me why should this (30 billion dollar scam) happen?

The idea of NEET (National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test) became quite popular amongst most medical students.. It promised something that was a rarity before it -- transparency, standardization and increased seats.. Students got bored of the type of questions that were being asked in the AIPGMEE.. Students started studying more for exams.. The exam started becoming more crooked.. And the students started studying much more.. A vicious cycle that had led to the situation where the questions in AIPGMEE didn't make any sense, and students had stopped going to hospitals for internship and started going to coaching institutes to crack exams.. And then there was the competition.. AIPGMEE just had a percentage of seats from just the government colleges! And there were individual state exams. So, a student had to spend a lot of money and energy on filling numerous forms for entrance to different exams.. And all exams had different standards.. So, one needed to buy specific course/guide books for all these different exams.. And if you have gone through the above link on 30 billion dollar scam, you'd know that corruption was so deep that the exams were not transparent anymore (except AIPGMEE and some others).. So, there were people profiting from every part of this "business". Be it the politicians' private hospitals, or be it the authors of so many guide books and their publishers, and also the coaching centers! With NEET, all get stripped out.. The "business" goes kaput! I'd say a serious blow to a lot of jobs! With NEET there'd be one standard exam.. Students won't need to purchase so many forms and give so many exams. Just one transparent, standard exam.. And since all the colleges in India will have to give all their seats, there'll be an increase in number of seats and fairer opportunity. I agree, the exam that NEET took this year had very bad questions.  But they could become better eventually. I also realized that they were not the usual bookworm questions. They were more practical questions. If NEET could actually inculcate asking such questions, won't it be good? Students would start going for internship, instead of cramming infinite knowledge for nothing. I think that would produce better doctors..

But then we have the NEET case.. It looks like some institutes are asking for their rights to conduct their own standard of exam and teachings. They are against this national standardization.. Yeah, one has the right to use their own recipe to make their own cake and the right to sell it in the market.. But this is making of doctors we are talking about, not the making of cakes, are we?

OK, FINE!! You filed a case.. Now what? Court is taking it's sweet time to give a verdict. A verdict was expected on 17th January, but the case is still going on, as of 18th April…. And still no verdict. This article was a call to the Health minister to look at the situation seriously.. But I am yet to see any effect.. But then something amazing happened!! Supreme court went on to drop the NEET case for a day to take up a rather important and critical (and I mean in the most sarcastic of senses) case on banning internet pornography. Check here.

Now there were some bomb blasts in Bangalore, as if the world was not already ending, and that too so close to some political party's place with elections near.. Damn these terrorists! Don't they get some other time or some other place! :-\

Anyway, life of most medical students, including me, have entered the doldrums. I, for instance, appeared in an interview out of the frustration of waiting for the results. Although I supposedly cleared the interview, I never got the joining letter after the medical check-up.. When inquired, was told that it was maybe due to my eye power.. Board regulations there was +/- 4 D. And I have -4.5 in one eye! Most other students have been asked to commit for 6 months or something to get a job, which they can't because of the delayed results.. So, no job, no results.. On the funnier side, I hear a lot of them are misplacing their admit cards for the exam!! Lol!  Can it get any worse?

Some are of the opinion that maybe they won't give results this year. But that is not possible.. Let me tell you why. In medical post graduation one has to work in the hospital, and are known as Residents. PG is a 3 years course. So, apart from the consultants/Senior doctors who work in the hospitals, it's the Residents and nurses who actually do the mundane.. So, if you see, almost all hospitals are working because of the 3 year Residents in each department.. Now if results were not declared, there'd be no 1st year residents! And it’s the 1st year residents who do the maximum work in most hospitals. And usually 3rd year residents don't give much time because of their upcoming final exams. So, with no 1st year and no 3rd year, all burden will land on 2nd years.. All hospitals will become under-staffed!! And if that does happen, I won't be surprised if the 2nd year residents go on a strike because of increased work load!! Lol! And that will result a load on the senior consultants and 3rd years.. Maybe the hospitals would just stop… Phew! Nah! Don't think that's gonna happen.. They might delay results or might even give a bad verdict, but results are coming soon..

So, the question isn't whether they will give or not. The question is whether the verdict will be a fair one. It has become so hard to speculate at the moment!

Medical students are fighting for their rights. Trying to trend #SaveNEETPG on Twitter so as to make mainstream media to cover this issue.. But after covering the sting operation, media seems satisfied with the issue. Nobody wants to cover the issue.. We are writing online petitions to support the cause.. Have written 2 so far..

1. https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/government-body-save-neet-pg?utm_campaign=share_button_mobile&utm_medium=facebook&utm_source=share_petition
2. https://www.change.org/en-IN/petitions/justice-jagdish-sharan-verma-request-for-intervention-in-the-case-affecting-the-rights-of-90-000-indian-doctors

As it is the Doctor-patient ratio is very bad in India. There's shortage of doctors! I want to ask the Government, why can't they increase the number of seats? Why can't they open new recognized colleges? Why can't they increase the expenditure on health? I have heard if you ask them, they'll give you it in terms of Rupees and say ,"See, we have increased the expenditure".. But what they would not show or see that the %GDP used is still 1% by the government.. ONE PERCENT!!!  And it's been 1% for ages!! Check my post "Health in India" for the data I dug out from WHO database. You will see the other countries I have compared with, have happily revised their expenditure and increased it!

Jacques Fresco, social engineer of The Venus Project,  rightly said that you can't talk about ethics in a Monetary Based Economy. I think this is exactly what is happening. One may unearth millions and billions of dollars from Swiss accounts, and "scams" might become like "spam" in India, and 90,000 medical students might die trying to save NEET PG, but elites are busy making more and more money.

Whoever had said that the world was ending in December 2012, had a very shrewd sense of metaphor and cruel sense of humour with respect to the medical students in India.

Hoping against all odds that Supreme court may give a fair verdict and corruption might be decreased if not ended. Till then, we are fighting for our rights. If you are reading this, you might as well open the aforesaid two petition links and sign them. It doesn't matter if you are a doctor or not. Do help us win this fight against corruption.

Hoping for a better and healthier tomorrow.

:)

Health in India

Hello party people! :D

Let me tell you a story to chill the bones and it’s not the song Dance of the Death by Iron Maiden.. :D

Recently, a sting operation had uncovered the selling of medical post graduate seats in India. Can you believe that? I was quite shocked.. No, not because I came to know this for the first time that seats were being sold, but that the price they were being sold at, and that seat bookings were done for the future as far as 2016!!

CNN-IBN covered it live the other day.. These guys went in with a camera and asked these hospital people if they could get a seat in PG in their college. And these guys happily told them that they could get whatever they wanted.. Every department had their rate like some Continental Restaurant Menu card! Pediatrics, Radiology, Medicine, Surgery, etc.. Up to ₹2 crores!! 2 freaking crores.. 2,00,00,000!! That is ₹20million!! Approximately US$ 363,899! Donno what they'd be serving for desserts though! And that's for one seat.. And then perhaps there's some provision for early bird prizes, too! I mean bookings have be done for seats up till 2016!! Advanced booking… Something like a pre-release sale or something. Can you imagine how lucrative this business of seat selling is? And the best thing is that they won't give a receipt.. So it's tax free!! :D

And then there was a lot of heated arguments of what the problem is.. And I think the problem comes to just few of the following very important things:

1. Doctor-Patient Ratio: India has an abysmal, to say the least, Doctor-Patient ratio. In my last post titled "Satyamev Jayate" I had given the data of how for every doctor there is 1953 patients in India as of 2012. Thus, the number of doctors are very less..

2. Medical Institutes: The number of Medical institutes are very less. There are 355 Medical Colleges in India.. Out of which 161 are Government colleges and 194 are Private colleges.. With even full turnover of doctors at 44250 doctors per year from these 355 colleges the doctor patient ratio wont come down enough.. But that of course never happens..

3. Expenditure on Health: The % of GDP used in health services in India is 3.9% as of 2011!

Total %GDP expenditure on Health in India

 And Government just uses 1% of GDP in health services.

%GDP expenditure on Health by Government of India

 The above 2 tables show the data compared to some other countries..

Now why won't there be corruption!

Every student after completing their MBBS want to get into an MD/MS/Diploma course.. The total number of seats are 21282.. So, of the 44250 MBBS students per year, only 21282 students get into a post graduate course! Not even 50%!! And the expenditure on health by India is also very low!

What can be the solution to the problem?

Increase the number of medical colleges. Increase the number of post graduate seats. Increase the expenditure on health..

And in India it is mostly seen that the private colleges are profit driven and thus are corrupt.. India needs to open more and more government colleges. Indian government should increase their %GDP expenditure on health from a meager 1.2% to somewhere around 6%. Is it asking much?

Right now this fight for getting into a post graduate degree is causing all the corruption.. Like it's said, Scarcity increases profits.. Make seats abundant, there'd be less corruption. No chance for making profits.. And moreover when the expenditure on Health will be increased, Institutes won't be bankrupt to think about profits through illegal means!

And after that, even the education system needs to be polished, so that good doctors are produced..

Hoping for a better future..

[Sources: WHO and MCI websites]

Doctor or Business?

A doctor has the huge responsibility of treating a patient.. Most people come to a doctor with a lot of trust, because their life depends on them.

But a doctor is as human as the patient. And to become a doctor, one needs to go through a lot of study and hard work. But a doctor is still liable to make human errors.. Sometimes it may cost a life or perhaps a severe disability. To a doctor it may be a statistical insignificance most of the times, but to a patient, or a family member, the harm done maybe be very dear. The following post by a friend shows how it feels to be a victim of such error at the patient end.

"It is over a year and four months today. We feel victimized- victimized by the utmost failure of a judicial system and lack of conscience on the part of an otherwise noble profession- the medical sciences. 

A year and four months ago a perfectly healthy woman was rendered blind for life after a supposedly harmless cataract surgery. This woman is my mother. She continues to be an example for all of us, till date- we may have a weak moment but she refuses to be put down. She may not have her job anymore but she refuses to let her idle moments make her bitter. She is still as much in-charge of the house as in her better days.

What irks me- to this day we read about the doctor practicing freely at eye camps meant for the less privileged- causing further damage with a promise to restore conditions at a higher price at his 'private' clinic. To this date he is associated with a prestigious organization which, I suppose, hasn't bothered to check his track record yet. I'm only aware of three lives being ruined personally- the rest are just mere numbers to the onlooker anyway.

The local papers in Jamshedpur (Tatanagar) won't run our request of highlighting the malpractice- we can't buy them at a price the other party offered.

The lawyers we hired seem to be in need of endless amounts of money to print every possible piece of paper or notice for the past four months- we're being milked dry. The police won't move the file up till we can buy our way out of the pile.

All we have, all I have, is words- a social medium- where I can request each one of you, please be aware, please be careful.

People of Jamshedpur- it's a humble request- the best way to curb medical malpractice is by not giving such insensitive people a market, a platform to clean their hands.

I urge you, request you- please stop this man by spreading the word, by not giving Dr. [name withheld] more opportunities to fill his pockets at the cost of innocent lives. Even a simple apology from this man would have made us think, but he refuses to either acknowledge or take responsibility for his actions.

We have been through the trauma of trying to save her eyes for a whole year- not everyone has the means and resources to fight. This plea for help ironically comes from a family of doctors and lawyers. I shudder to imagine what an average Indian would do.

Please help us! By helping yourself."

What do you think is the solution to such a problem?

NEET- the only exam.. Or not?

One India One Exam

NEET was started with the concept of introducing one standard exam for whole of India for medical students.. NEET-UG for getting into MBBS course.. NEET-PG for specialization and NEET-SS for super specialization..

This post is about NEET-PG.

Although NEET-PG was started to eliminate all state exams, but now its hanging in mid air.. Before NEET-PG, AIPGMEE was there to give entrance to all government colleges throughout India. But not all the seats.. A percentage of the total seats per college.. The rest of the seats were given through the State PG exams.. And for the private colleges there were other exams..

But then corruption started creeping in, and to eliminate these corruptive behavior NEET was started.. NEET-PG would be one standard exam that would give an all India rank and state rank.. And you could chose the college according to your all India rank or State rank..

Many minor colleges stated that their students had a different syllabus and their students would have difficulty in competing with all India standard! (WHAT!!!???) So, they went to Supreme court and told them that they wanted to keep taking state exams.. Supreme court has given permission to all state governments to take exams but has asked them to withheld the results.. 15-17 January Supreme court will hear the case and give the verdict..

So, what's going on?

If court rules in favor of the state government, then NEET will become like AIPGMEE.. And state government will be free to take their exams..

What’s the disadvantage?

Consider my state-- Madhya Pradesh.. And consider the state exam taken by VYAPAM.. It's the most corrupt exam taking body that the Earth could ever come across perhaps.. Ranks are sold.. Seats are sold.. Kids with political or monetary support get good departments/ranks, while hard working general students with no such support or "source" are thrown into the gutter.. That is the level of corruption.. MGM Medical College, Indore has gone into strike.. And so has other Medical colleges in MP..

I call respected Aamir Khan now.. Now do you know why the number of negligent cases has increased? It happens when people  get good ranks because of "source" and not merit… this is outrageous!

I don't ask for one country one exam if it's problem to some students, but I ask for a corruption less examining body.. This country needs more doctors, but good doctors.. It's not just quantity, but quality, too..

Let there be peace, and justice..

Some photos including articles and pictures of strike by medical students on facebook, click here.

NEET PG

Everything was going digital.. And so has exams.. 2011 was the last year for AIPPGME.. Now it is being conducted by a different body, NBE. The exam now is called NEET-PG.. Even AIPMT has become NEET-UG.. And there's a NEET-SS for super specialization.

Prometrics is conducting the online adventure. The same company that takes another National exam -- CAT -- for business students (MBA).

After a lot of struggle, this dream of online exam for MBBS students has been realized.. As far as I remember, I had been hearing rumors of online exam since 2009.. But every time it was cancelled. 2012 was the year..

It was my first online exam experience. Of course, apart from DNB-CET.. This is a post related to my experience.

DNB-CET and NEET-PG were conducted by the same board, i.e. NBE. NBE used to conduct just DNB-CET before this. Now they are conducting both.. And what a mess they have made for both.. There were so many rumors about the expected pattern. But looks like things went totally unexpected. Let me tell  you in brief..

AIPGMEE used to be conducted by AIIMS. It had a question pattern very close to AIIMS, but simpler.. It consisted of questions that were fact based and some that were analysis based. But as the years passed by, the questions became weirder and weirder..  DNB-CET is known for its weird questions.. No logic.. One liner questions.. No analysis.. Not much. The dictum is solve the last few years questions and you can crack the exam easily.. But with AIPGMEE and AIIMS a bit more preparation is needed than just blindly solving last few years questions..

When the new pattern was published for NEET, everybody got quite scared.. The proposed pattern included questions with graphs, X-Rays, Diagrams and a lot of analysis questions..

And then something funny happened.. After all the apprehension and hard work behind the said pattern, we encountered a pattern that was like DNB-CET, i.e. one liner questions without any analysis.. And the questions were either kid easy or senseless tough.. And since it was taken over a week for around 7days, question sets differed.. Some students got more of kid easy and some got more of senseless tough…

It was my first online exam experience… and it was satisfactory.. I shall write about my experience on a different post…

See ya all.. :)