Critical Care Posting at par with remote hilly Posting for NEET PG incentive marking

Chennai: The Managing Director, Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation, P Umanath, headed medical education committee, which submitted its report on 'defining or identifying Primary Health Centres, hospitals located in remote and difficult areas', for rewarding incentive marks to the service candidates for the admission to post-graduate degree courses for the academic year 2018-2019 has taken some distinctive decisions.

Steering away from the convention, the committee has included names of some departments even in city-based medical college hospitals and urban district hospitals, along recommending removal of some primary health centres in backward and rural districts for the purpose of incentive marking.

"The division this time is not about urban or remote, it's about areas that are difficult or remote," said Tamil Nadu Medical Services Corporation Chairman, P Umanath, who chaired the committee.

The distinctive approach of the six-member committee formed by the government, to classify difficult and rural areas of the state-run hospitals and clinics. has brought at par a doctor working in the accident or emergency ward of a city hospital with another posted at the primary health centre, in remote Javadhu Hills, for the forthcoming May counselling to be done for postgraduate admissions, reports TOI.

According to the Committee report classification, two groups A and B are to be benefitted by incentive marking. The category A will receive 100% of the maximum permissible incentive marks – 10% of marks over and above their NEET score for every year, not exceeding 30%.

The second group, category B, will receive 40% of the maximum permissible incentive marks – 4% of marks over and above their NEET score for every year, not exceeding 30%.

50% reservation for all postgraduate and PG diploma seats should be continued, as earlier, has been strongly recommended by the Committee set up to study the need to give incentives to government service doctors working in difficult and inaccessible terrains in the State.

The Hindu reports The committee declared 16 districts in the State as 'difficult areas' to serve. These include Nagapattinam; Nilgiris; Perambalur; Pudukottai; Ramanathapuram; Sivaganga; Theni; Thiruvannamalai; Thiruvarur; Vellore; Villupuram; Ariyalur; Cuddalore; Dharmapuri; Dindigul and Virudhunagar.

The committee members have worked out the above guideline on incentive marking using hybrid methods.

Institutions in all hilly areas, but not all institutions in the 16 backward districts will be benefitted, says the report.

"But not all institutions in this district list will get the benefit. These institutions should be in difficult areas, having a low density of doctors, high vacancies and poor health indicators, but not in municipal or corporation limits," Dr Edwin Joe, Director of Medical Education told the daily.

101 postgraduate medical seats across 14 government medical colleges will be introduced by the state, this year, taking the total to 1,585. 50% of the seats are to be given away to all India quota, while the rest have been reserved for the doctors attached to government institutions.

The committee report should be officially announced by the government before it can be adopted as a rule for the upcoming counselling, reports TOI.