The National Board of Education (NBE) that conducts tests for admission to post-graduate medical courses has extended the cut-off date for completion of the mandatory one-year internship to June 30, according to a notification issued on Friday. “National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) shall conduct the NEET-PG 2023 on 5th March 2023….The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), Govt. of India … has revised the cut-off date for completion of internship for the purpose of eligibility for NEET-PG 2023 to 30th June 2023,” the notification said. The previous cut-off date of March 30 would have rendered over half the students of the current batch ineligible for the exam, prompting requests from various resident doctors’ associations to extend the date. NEET-PG is likely to be discontinued next year onwards with the government implementing a new two-part exit test for all MBBS students, which will be a basis for their registration as doctors and admissions for further PG courses. The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), which had last week, said that all students from some states would be ineligible for the test if the cut-off date remained March 30, on Friday said, “Here comes extension in eligibility date of NEETPG2023. Hope more n more students across the nation get eligible.” Dr Rohan Krishnan from another doctors’ group — Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) — had a day earlier said, that the suggestions had been accepted by the ministry and the notification for the same would be released soon. He had last week said that although some states chronically delayed the results of the final exams for MBBS disqualifying the students, the numbers were much higher this year because of delays due to the pandemic. Students, after completing their MBBS course, have to complete a mandatory one-year internship before becoming eligible for PG entrance examination. However, Friday’s notification, did not go down well with some students who said that they would have to wait for months for counselling after the exam while others finish their internships. Last year as well there was a gap of several months between the examination and counselling.
