Diplomate National Board (DNB) resident doctors at District Hospital in Chitradurga, Karnataka, are facing harassment and threats from the hospital's consultants, who are allegedly threatening to withhold their stipends for declining duties beyond their curriculum requirements.

The issue was highlighted by the United Doctors’ Front Association on social media platform X (formerly Twitter).

The medical association received a complaint from the DNB residents indicating that they are being pressured by the consultants to perform Casualty Medical Officer (CMO) duties, which fall outside their curriculum and compromise their departmental responsibilities.

The medics also wrote a complaint to the National Board of Exams for Medical Sciences (NBEMS), which read, “PG trainees are overworked and most of the time we are not getting any support from our consultant to handle critical cases. Here we are exploited by the name of work. We are forced to do casualty duty, jail duty, convoy duty and we are forced to see other department cases which is nowhere related to our DNB curriculum. Even we are forced to see critical cases without any guidance and without proper amenities to manage cases.”

Further, the email sent to UDFA by the DNB residents also added that they are being threatened for complaining about the issue.