Medical students fret over internships

BENGALURU: Students are worried over delay in completion of their internships as they will be ineligible for the NEET PG 2023. National Board of Examination in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) has initiated the registration process on Saturday.

Except for a few states, other states including Karnataka are ineligible for the NEET PG exam this year. The online submission of applications will remain open till January 27, the circular released on Saturday read. However, the cut-off date for completing internships to be eligible is March 31. Students and doctors have raised concerns over internship dates. They are apprehensive that the students will be unable to complete their internships by March 31, and hence, they will be ineligible for the exam.

Dr Tejaswi HJ, president, Junior Doctors Association, said that if the dates remain unchanged, 7,000 students of the state will be affected as they will be unable to appear for the exam, and that will lead to loss of a year.  Last year, the interships started late because of the pandemic, he explained, but in the state, the internships began on April 24, 2022 and will end in April 2023.