Resident doctors of North Bengal Medical College and Hospital (NBMCH), the oldest and largest medical college in north Bengal, have alleged that the college authorities have charged exorbitant fees without receipts for the Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) and Basic Life Support (BLS) courses.

“ACLS and BLS are mandatory courses according to the guidelines of the National Medical Commission (NMC). This is a curriculum that should be conducted by the college, but in NBMCH, the authorities have appointed a third party for this training and taken ₹11,000 from around 150 students so far,” said Sukanta Singha Roy, a third-year postgraduate trainee at NBMCH.

He added that the first training was conducted in April and the second in July. “The third training was scheduled in August but because of our protests, it was cancelled,” he added.

On Thursday, a delegation of the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) at NBMCH submitted a memorandum to Indrajit Saha, the principal and staged a demonstration outside his office, seeking clarification as to why such a fee was charged from them.

Madhurima Das, a member of RDA and a junior doctor, said NMC has made it compulsory for postgraduate medical students to complete the ACLS course.

“However, the NMC did not specify the fee structure for this course. While other medical colleges in the state charge a fee ranging from ₹500 to ₹1,000 for the same course, in NBMCH the authorities have charged a significantly higher fee of ₹11,000,” said Das.

The junior doctors alleged that the amount had been collected unethically as no proper receipts were provided.

“Out of 200-odd PGT students, 150 students have paid the amount. Around 100 of them attended the last two training sessions,” she added.

Sources said that such protests by the junior doctors have prompted the authorities to plan to refund a portion of the fees to students who have not attended the training in August.

“The training for the third batch was scheduled in August but it was cancelled. The refund for these 50 students has been initiated by the authority,” said a source in NBMCH.

A senior faculty member of NBMCH said that the issue needs to be addressed by the state government and the NMC. “If such matters remain unaddressed, it may impact the quality of medical education and the trustworthiness of this institution,” said the faculty member.