A Pune-based doctor was denied a super speciality medical seat allotted to him at LH Hiranandani Hospital in Powai after it was revealed that the hospital had already admitted another candidate on the same spot during the previous admission round.
The aspirant was allocated one of the two seats available for the Doctorate of National Board (DrNB) in cardiology in the third or special counselling round, but he was in for a rude shock after the hospital authorities told him that the seat was already filled in the second round.
Ministry steps in
The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), which carries out the admission process, later faulted the hospital for not updating the joining of the other candidate on the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) portal.
In an email to the hospital and the candidate the ministry said that the candidate will now be given one of the seats that remain vacant after the special counselling round. However, the candidate might have to contend with a less preferred option later, or worse, not get admitted anywhere at all. “Had it not been for this error, I would have gotten one of the other seats in my preference list. Now, those seats will all be likely taken in this round,” he said.
Hospital refuses to comment
The hospital, through a spokesperson, refused to comment on its ‘inaction’ being held responsible for the mix-up and said that the decision of the ministry is final.
The ongoing admissions to 3,068 super speciality seats at medical institutes across the country have been marred with similar complaints of re-allocation of seats due to non-reporting by institutes. Last week, MCC had cancelled the provisional allocation of seats in the special round and issued a fresh list of allocations after it learnt that many super speciality colleges had admitted candidates offline and didn’t update this information.
Following the fiasco, the MoHFW had directed the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, which regulates super speciality programmes, to disable its online portal for joining and registration (OPJR) for reporting admissions as it was “creating confusion” for the institutes.
