Kerala - Kochi   

Dentists flay abolishing of internship for BDS

KOCHI: The one-year compulsory internship, part and parcel of medical school curriculum, has been withdrawn from the Bachelor of Dental Surgery course from this academic session. The BDS course will now be an integrated five-year course. Till last academic year, students completed their BDS course in four-and-a-half years and then a full year was spent as an intern at the same college hospital they studied in. It was only after a years practice as a decision-making doctor that they could seek employment elsewhere or start practice on their own. “It is the time when students acquire the skills for actually treating a patient,” said a senior official in the Health Services. The new rule brought forth by the Dental Council of India (DCI) in November last year takes away one of the most crucial periods in which a medical student matures into a doctor, according to the Kerala Health Services Dental Surgeons Association.

A statement issued by Association president Ajith Kumar A. and general secretary K. Krishna Kumar says “dentistry is a surgical course and practical experience in using most modern surgical equipment is most important.” They alleged that the new rule was beneficial only to private managements.

The DCI notice mentions that it will be financially beneficial to managements as they will not have to pay the monthly internship allowances. It also mentions that no financial burden will be put on the students for the extra academic months in the course.

However, the association representative said the DCI had no authority to enforce any fee regulation. “In fact, they do not have any advisory role too. They have a say only in matters of the curriculum.”

The DCI has not changed the curriculum, but has suggested that the course be expanded to five years. According to P.J. Pradeep Kumar, a member of the Kerala Dental Council, the DCI’s new rule was to favour the private managements in medical education that had mushroomed across the country.

If the internship period was removed, the medical students need not be paid any stipend, which is about Rs.4,500 a month, said Dr. Pradeep. As most private medical colleges do not have enough patients, the students find it hard to get practical experience, he said. There were those with initiative who try to do voluntary work in government hospitals, he added.

Most countries had a three-year residency programme for students, said Dr. Pradeep.

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