Now doctors want quotas for their children in MBBS

KATHMANDU, Sept 17: A policy of reservations is implemented by the government to uplift socially backward, underprivileged and under-represented classes, but doctors at Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital (TUTH) are redefining the concept and seeking separate quotas for their children in MBBS program at TUTH. [break]



They have not exactly used the term reservations and instead called it a facility, but they have been agitating for the past few weeks demanding quotas for their children. They stopped teaching at the campus and offering paid services at the hospital from August 30 and they also stopped services at the afternoon outpatient department (OPD) a week later.



Though they resumed teaching from Tuesday, they are yet to turn up for OPD and paid services, thereby affecting hundreds of patients daily. President of the Faculty Doctors´ Association (FDA) Dr Modnath Marahatta did not answer our calls while President of Nepal University Teachers´ Association, Maharajgunj chapter, Dr Karbir Nath Yogi refused to comment.



"Our love affair with the press has now ended," Dr Yogi said. "It´s our internal matter and we will solve it internally," Dr Yogi added after pondering a while but did not respond when asked how an issue that affects hundreds of members of the public daily can be just an internal matter.



Bone of contention



The FDA had been making several demands including quotas for doctors´ children, promotion, training, transparency at the Institute of Medicine (IOM), benefits, residence and provision for visiting professors for the last couple of years.



Under the current system there are 42 seats for Nepali students filled through open competition, one seat for all IOM staff including non-doctors and non-teaching staff, and 17 fully paid seats for international students while one scholarship seat is reserved for an international student from the SAARC region. The last seat is not always taken.



"They (faculty doctors) had been threatening to even leave IOM and join other medical colleges that can pay them more. So, we fulfilled their demand on quotas through a faculty board meeting, but the Academic Council of TU rejected it under pressure from students, saying that such a decision can affect other institutions under TU," Campus Chief of Maharajgunj Campus Dr Ram Prasad Uprety said.



The second stage of the 147th Faculty Board Meeting on August 2 had increased the total number of seats to 75 from 61, allotting two seats for the children of teaching doctors and one seat for the children of non-doctor teachers, with the erstwhile one seat being allotted solely for other staff. The seats open for competition were increased to 43 from 42 while 10 fully paid seats were also made available for Nepali students.



All the students had protested strongly against the decision and padlocked the offices of the dean and the campus chief the same day. "We feel that there is no infrastructure for more than 61 students and there should not be any kind of reservations -- we are against even one seat allotted for staff but had ignored the existing one seat as it was allotted many years ago, and TUTH being a government-funded institution should not be charging any money from Nepali students," said secretary of the Free Students´ Union Sudan Thapa.



The students are adamant that if the seats are increased through upgrading of the infrastructure all the new seats should be made available for open competition. "The doctors are a privileged lot and there shouldn´t be any reservations for their children," Thapa added.



The FDA, on the other hand, is also firm in its stand and is pressuring the management by threatening to quit. "The strike has definitely affected the hospital. It has affected the afternoon OPD service and also revenue generation by the hospital as around 300 patients, who pay Rs 200 each, come for the paid service every day," said Hospital Director Dr Keshav Prasad Singh.



Prasun Tamang of the Medical Records Department said more than 150 patients come for the afternoon OPD service daily and have to turn back disappointed due to the strike. A few patients came to inquire about afternoon OPD even as Tamang was talking to this scribe, and turned back uttering profanities against the doctors.



Campus Chief Dr Uprety is feeling the heat of the situation and concedes that seats cannot be increased under any circumstance for this session which starts from November 16. "It is a very difficult and serious situation. On the one hand the students are right in their argument. The public also may feel aggrieved if reservations are made for doctors who are relatively better off than most other people. On the other hand, there is a real threat that the doctors may leave us and we have to retain them as they are very hard to replace," Dr Uprety said.



Dr Uprety said the management is seeking suggestions from everyone for an amicable solution to the crisis. "We have a regular meeting of all the department heads on the first day of every Nepali month which falls Thursday and we will try to reach a decision by consensus," he assured.



He said the management can address other demands of the FDA and will try to persuade the doctors not to just stick to their one demand about quotas and to return to work.



premdhakal@myrepublica.com

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