In a surprising development in India’s medical education sector, government postgraduate medical seats are now being occupied by candidates with unusually low NEET-PG scores. This comes after a significant reduction in the qualifying cut-offs this year.
The National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS), under the Union Health Ministry, lowered the NEET-PG qualifying criteria to expand the pool of eligible candidates. This decision followed over 18,000 unfilled PG medical seats after the first two rounds of counselling.
The cut-off percentile for the general category was reduced from 50th to 7th, and for SC/ST/OBC candidates, it was lowered to zero. This allowed even candidates with negative scores from earlier exams to participate in counselling.
A significant reduction in NEET-PG qualifying cut-offs has reportedly enabled candidates with very low scores to fill government postgraduate medical seats, including in major clinical and surgical specialties. This has sparked concerns among doctors about training standards and patient safety.
Counselling records show alarmingly low-score allotments for PG medical seats. An MS Orthopaedics seat in Rohtak went to a candidate with just 4/800, while seats in obstetrics and gynaecology and general surgery in top Delhi colleges were filled by candidates scoring 44 and 47, respectively.
Other disciplines saw extremely low scores (10 in transfusion medicine, 11 in anatomy, and even -8 in biochemistry), mainly among reserved category and PwBD candidates. While the reduced cut-offs prevented seats from remaining vacant, medical experts warn that this could compromise essential competency standards.
Health ministry officials say that a doctor’s competence comes from proper training and final exams, not just entry scores. They further add that colleges have the authority to fail students who do not meet required standards.
On the other hand, medical educators warn that drastically lowering cut-offs without enough experienced faculty, proper exams, and sufficient clinical exposure could weaken training. They add that this could compromise patient care and reduce public trust in the healthcare system.
The dispute over cut-offs highlights a bigger issue: how to fill seats without compromising standards. Despite the debate, the medical community agrees on one point: patient safety must always come first.
