Kalyani/Kolkata: With the reason behind the mysterious death of a final year student of the College of Medicine and JNM Hospital (CoMJNMH) still being probed, sources on the campus indicated that Pulak Haldar was under tremendous study pressure ahead of the final MBBS examination scheduled to start on March 5. Sources said he was reluctant to write the examination and consulted a mental health expert recently for symptoms of depression.
Sources said that this is the first time the MBBS final year students will have to write 6 important clinical subjects in the final year — medicine, gynaecology, surgery, paediatrics, ENT and ophthalmology. The last 2 subjects are the 2 additional subjects this year, which used to be part of MBBS third year.
Final year MBBS students told TOI that during the previous academic sessions, final year students got 18 months of academic session to complete the 4 subjects. The NMC (National Medical Commission) earlier proposed replacing the final MBBS exam with a new concept called National Exit Test (NExT) from this year. While the plan was ultimately put on hold due to legal, infrastructure and logistic challenges, this left students with only 11 months to complete 6 clinical subjects. Professional MBBS exams across all medical colleges are now live-streamed from halls, and every student is frisked by bouncers.