Madhya Pradesh: The Madhya Pradesh Health Department has yet to finalise postings for resident doctors under the District Residency Programme (DRP), creating uncertainty over their deployment to district hospitals and other government health institutions across the state.
The new batch of postgraduate resident doctors was expected to begin its mandatory three-month DRP rotation from July 1. However, the posting list has still not been released, leaving both the outgoing and incoming batches in a state of uncertainty.
What is the District Residency Programme?
The District Residency Programme is a mandatory rotational training requirement prescribed by the National Medical Commission. It is designed to provide postgraduate medical students with hands-on clinical and public health experience at district and sub-district hospitals across the state.
Rule Changes Trigger Confusion
Resident doctors say the delay comes amid ongoing revisions to the posting process. Earlier, postings were finalised at the state level through a choice-filling system that allowed doctors to indicate their preferred districts.
According to doctors, this provision has now reportedly been removed following recent amendments to the rules.
Under the revised framework, deans and heads of departments (HoDs) are expected to assign postings within the same divisions where postgraduate students completed their studies.
Doctors’ Associations Raise Concerns
The change has drawn opposition from doctors’ associations, contributing to administrative uncertainty.
“It is the first time after implementation of DRP that posting of resident doctors has not been finalised in time. Usually it is finalised two-three days before ending of DRP three months period of the previous doctors’ batch. But this time, the new batch was to join on July 1, and the list has not been released. In fact, the health department is now in a dilemma over previous and new rulings leading to delay,”
said Dr Akash Soni, national spokesperson of the Federation of All India Medical Association.
Impact on Healthcare Services
The delay is expected to affect the timely deployment of resident doctors to district hospitals, where they play a significant role in providing specialist and emergency healthcare services.
With no official posting list released yet, thousands of postgraduate medical students remain uncertain about their place of posting and reporting schedule.
