Service candidates’ PG courses quota to be decided dynamically on a year-on-year basis

CHENNAI: Due to saturation of vacancies in certain specialities, the state Health Department has issued orders that the number of seats reserved in the post-graduate admissions for the service candidates will be decided dynamically on a year-on-year basis.

This would imply that the 50 per cent seats will not be reserved for the in-service doctors.

Additionally, the order stated that the service reservation of postgraduate seats for the upcoming batch for certain specialities shall be temporarily kept in abeyance for a period of a year.

Earlier, the Director of Medical Education and Research had given a report on the available vacancies for the postgraduate service candidates.

A government order by the department stated that given the circumstances of saturation of vacancies, the number of seats reserved for the MD and MS admissions for the service candidates will be decided dynamically as per the availability of the vacancies, on a year-on-year basis.

For the year 2024-2025, the service reservation of post graduate seats for specialities other than General Medicine, General Surgery, Paediatrics, Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Orthopaedics, Anaesthesiology, Chest Medicine, Radiology, Community Medicine and Forensic Medicine shall be temporarily kept in abeyance for a period of one year and it shall be relooked based on the situation for the next academic year.

Doctors express concern

The doctors have expressed concern over the lack of vacancies and said that the accommodation of service and non-service postgraduates for broad speciality seats should be looked into.

They pointed out that instead of diluting the in-service reservation, the department should have created new posts as the vacancies have saturated.

The doctors associations in the state say that the restriction on in-service reservation should have been done in a phased manner and it would impact the public health sector due to lack of specialists in the future.

Revoke order, demands EPS

Meanwhile, Leader of Opposition Edappadi K Palanswami expressed shock over the order to withhold the service reservation for the in-service doctors in certain specialities for the present academic year and demanded the government to revoke the order.

The government’s move amounts to snatching away the opportunities from the in-service doctors to pursue speciality courses. It would also destroy their dreams.

This move exposes the hypocritical approach of the DMK regime, the LoP said.