Cornea, Cataract & Refractive Surgery (MCh) Fellowship review @ Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education & Research (PGI/ PGIMER), Chandigarh

Duration 3 yrs

MCh fellowship so you acquire an officially recognised formal degree at the end of fellowship.

You have to do a thesis as well.

1 General category, 1 sponsored and 1 foreign candidate taken every 6 months

Selection- Entrance exam followed by interview (they prefer someone with at least 2 yrs SRship)

Stipend- 1.3 lakh in first yr, 1.4L in second yr, 1.5L in 3rd yr

You enter Cornea dept directly from first month, no general Ophthal or other speciality postings

By the end of first month, you will have been started on the therapeutic/emergency procedures- patch grafts, AMTs etc

Fellows have OT twice a week.

You're posted with each Cornea consultant for 3 months.

They also train in phacos, but if you're an SICS beginner or know only SICS, it might be delayed, they will start phaco training slowly.

You also start getting refractive cases, depending on the consultant, they might give you hands-on as early as 2nd month onwards or at the latest, from 6th month onwards. 

You get ample cases for surgery, whether cornea, phaco or refractive (SMILE, LASIK, PRK, approx 100+) 

Liberal numbers for penetrating keratoplasties in 3 yrs, easily 1000+ cases

Phacos ~800 topical phacos

Lamellar keratoplasty is more limited since there is a bit of scarcity of donor tissue, even then you get to do around 10 cases or less.. you will be given few independent cases of lamellar to do by the end (~ 3-4 independently)

Work timings 9 am- 5 pm

But Cornea clinic can go till 6.30 pm depending on pt load and how fast you see cases

Doesn't usually cross 7 pm 

All consultants are friendly, dept is not toxic.

Sundays off

Public holidays are off unless you have ward patients or postops from day before.

No peripheral postings.

Night duties- once a month (rarely twice a month)

You are 2nd on call but you have to manage and operate all the trauma cases that come.

Camp duties may very rarely be assigned to MCh fellows.

Academics- regular weekly classes

PPTs usually made by MCh fellows and are exhaustive (helpful for the internal exams as well as the final exit exam)

Exit exam+

Internal exams also conducted every 6 months.

Overall, a good fellowship since you come out independent in all corneal surgeries, phacos and refractive procedures.