KATHMANDU, Feb 7: The 16th meeting of the Medical Education Commission (MEC) decided to provide residential doctors at private medical colleges with a living allowance equivalent to that of government employees (8th level).
Prime Minister and MEC Chairperson KP Sharma Oli chaired the meeting held on Friday at the Prime Minister’s Office. Based on discussions with relevant parties and the reports received, the Commission determined that residential doctors should receive equal benefits, including a monthly allowance of Rs 48,700.
The Prime Minister's Secretariat stated that the MEC will hold further discussions on other issues and make decisions in its upcoming meeting.
The meeting also discussed charging an annual fee of Rs 2.3 million to students who refuse to sign a two-year work-study agreement with the concerned college.
During the meeting, Professor Dr Gyanendra Man Singh Karki, President of the Association of Private Medical and Dental Colleges Nepal, urged the decision be made once the procedures were in place. However, PM Oli, Minister of Health and Population Pradeep Poudel, and Minister of Education, Science, and Technology Bidya Bhattarai reiterated their commitment to providing equal benefits to residential doctors, stating they could not back down from it.
The NEC's meeting, which oversees the unified regulation, monitoring, entrance exam conduction, student seat numbers allocation, and tuition fee determination for medical education, also discussed initiating the process for necessary amendments to the National Medical Education Act, 2075 BS.