Final-year PG doctors write to PM Modi to call off exams – Times of India

MUMBAI: Final-year postgraduate doctors who had moved the Supreme Court demanding cancellation of their final exams due to lack of preparation time have now written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi making the same request.

The letter enlists several points on why exams must be waived. The letter stated that in India, it is the junior residents (JRs) who are “running hospitals”. “Since the pandemic started, it has been these JRs, and particularly JRs of this batch, who has constantly been working in Covid centres. This batch of JRs has been forced to work till the time a new batch of JRs don’t join, and that seems like a distant possibility in light of the upcoming third wave. This, combined with local laws, such as ESMA, make the JRs bonded labourers who have no other option but to work their days away,” said Dr. Shashidhar A, who is spearheading the movement.

Resident doctors said many other professional exams were either cancelled or the pattern and requirement of such exams were altered in the wake of the pandemic. Hence, waiving exams for this batch of JRs will only be “an act of mercy to the people who have worked for the past year surrounded by death and human suffering”.

Doctors said they have had no time to prepare for the exams. “The final postgraduate exams are a formality. It is the work done in the three-year training period that matters more, and many countries don’t even have exit exams. Also, the exams require at least a year of focussed preparation as these are not one-day exams,” said one of the doctors.