Hyderabad: NMC prescribes remedy for PG medicos' mental health

Hyderabad: The National Medical Commission (NMC) Post Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) on Thursday asked all the medical colleges to take care of the mental health and wellbeing of the PG medical students by ensuring adequate rest, weekly offs and counseling for those who are under stress.

The National Medical Commission wrote a letter to the deans of the colleges stating that grievances from Post Graduate (PG) Medical Students (Resident Doctors) has come to their notice as they said, they were under stress and depression due to long working hours, no weekly offs, non-sanctioning of leave during emergency and various other reasons.

The letter said, PGMEB in its meeting held on June 28 discussed numerous grievances received on the issue and decided that all the Medical colleges should take care of the mental health and wellbeing of the PG Medical Students by ensuring adequate rest, weekly off, counseling for those who are under stress.

Yoga sessions should be arranged on regular basis, sanctioning leave when required and respecting their dignity by providing a positive conducive working environment.

"The NMC asked the colleges to form a committee to look into the complaints/grievances including anonymous complaints/grievances which may be submitted by PG students either through mail or received in a drop box specially placed for this purpose.

"A healthy and stress free resident doctor is critical not only for his/ her own wellbeing but also for the wellbeing of the patients he/she treats," said president Vijay Oza.

All the medical colleges/ institutes have been asked to take necessary steps for taking care of the mental health and well-being of the PG Medical Students studying/working with them. An action taken report on the issue as well as the practice being followed in the College/Institute should be provided to the Commission on regular basis specially mentioning the cases of suicide, gender bias and incidences of dishonor to woman decency.