A major controversy has broken out over the recent decision to sharply reduce the qualifying percentile for admission to postgraduate medical courses, with resident doctors’ groups strongly opposing the move.
The Federation of Resident Doctors’ Associations (FORDA) has written to the Union Health Minister, demanding an immediate review of the decision. The federation warned that such a drastic dilution of eligibility norms could undermine public trust in the medical profession and weaken the standards of medical education.
In its representation, FORDA said that percentile benchmarks are designed to ensure that patients are treated by competent and well-trained doctors, and that lowering them to such an extent creates mistrust within the profession. It stressed the need to protect the integrity and quality of postgraduate medical training.
FORDA has also called for the constitution of an expert committee to objectively examine the issue and urged the government to refrain from taking unilateral decisions in the future. The association sought the inclusion of representatives from doctors’ bodies in any panel formed to review such policy changes.
Admissions to MD and MS courses are conducted through the NEET PG examination held by the National Board of Examinations (NBE). Until now, candidates were required to secure at least the 50th percentile in the general category and the 40th percentile in reserved categories. Two rounds of counselling have already been completed under these norms.
However, around 700 postgraduate medical seats remain vacant in Gujarat, while nearly 20,000 seats are unfilled nationwide. To address this, the Union Ministry of Health announced a major relaxation in the qualifying criteria.
Under the revised norms, the qualifying percentile has been reduced to 7 per cent for the general category, 5 per cent for persons with disabilities, and zero percentile for reserved categories. Following this decision, the schedule for the third round of postgraduate medical admissions has been released.