February 18, 2019:

After 2 yrs as doctor, Medical Council of India through its Guidelines turn polio-hit man 'ineligible' to study further.

After completing MBBS in 2016 in a government college and working as a junior resident for almost two years, Dr Mohammad Shaloo, who has post-polio residual paralysis, has cleared the postgraduate entrance exam but has been told that under the new Medical Council of India guidelines, he is "ineligible" to study further.

Despite both his legs being affected with polio, Dr Shaloo, from Makrana in Nagaur district of Rajasthan, was determined to become a doctor.

He went to Kota for coaching and in 2011 got admission in the government medical college in Ajmer under the disability quota after being certified as having over 50% disability. The quota is for those with over 40% disability.

After MBBS, he did eight months as a junior resident (JR) in the paediatrics department of his college and was then selected on a temporary basis as a JR in the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation department of RML Hospital in Delhi where he worked for a year.

He then cleared the NEET PG exam. However, in Safdarjung Hospital's PMR department, he was told that as he had over 90% disability, he was "ineligible for admission".

The eligibility guidelines for undergraduate medical education fixed by MCI and notified on Feb 4 stated that those with disability beyond 80% would be ineligible for MBBS.

This was despite the health ministry suggesting that the amendments to the Regulations for Graduate Medical Education 1997 should allow students with over 80% loco motor disability to appear for MBBS entrance and determine their functional competency with the aid of assistive devices if they were selected. They have come up with these arbitrary guidelines for undergraduate medical education and now the same is being applied to postgraduates too.

Dr Shaloo's case shows how ridiculous this is. He has already done his MBBS. How can you question his competency? Ironically, he was doing residency in the PMR department and these guidelines were framed by a single person in AIIMS PMR department," said Dr Satendra Singh of Doctors With Disabilities, a group of over 75 practicing doctors with various disabilities.

"After having achieved my dream to become a doctor and worked as one for almost two years, it hurt to see the word 'ineligible' on the disability certificate given by Safdarjung Hospital," said Dr Shaloo, who is waiting for an order posting him in the Community Health Centre in Nagour district.

His colleague in the PMR department felt that the 80% cut-off to decide eligibility was arbitrary.

"Why 80%? Why not 90%? You are disqualifying a person by an arbitrary number?" the colleague said.

“All my life I was helped by many people. I will not let this stop me,” asserted Dr Shaloo.

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