Glaucoma Post Doctoral Fellowship review @ JIPMER, Puducherry

Duration of fellowship - 2 years (used to be 1 year till 2025)

Earlier the requirement was that only those who were 2 or 3 yrs post PG/ SRs could join this program

But now they are taking candidates immediately post MS & DNB, hence increased to 2 years.

Fellows per session- 1

Stipend- 1.1 -1.5 lakhs/ month

Caution deposit= 30,000 (refunded at end of fellowship)

Penalty for quitting fellowship midway-

3 lakhs if within 6 months of joining, 5 lakhs if after 6 months of joining.

First 9 months will be in General Ophthal where you'll be seeing mostly OPD.

If you know SICS or phaco well, you will be given cases also in this time.

But if you're not fluent in either, the case allocation will be really low (primarily because it will be up to you to learn and pick up, the program per se is not intended to build your cataract skills).

Cataract OT days not fixed.. OT list is made by SRs so they decide how many cases you are allotted.

After 9 months in General, you are shifted to Glaucoma where you will see glaucoma cases and do glaucoma lasers in plenty.

In this time, you have 3 OT days a week in Glaucoma.. you'll be scrubbed in with Subhashini ma'am who allocates cases according to your proficiency.

OPD is not too hectic but it can feel chaotic in the beginning when you're settling into the system.

Clinical exposure is very good.

You get trabs, phacotrabs and MIGS (good number of BANGs, KDBs).

GATT not commonly done here.

One of the fellows who did it for 1 year (a proficient phaco surgeon) got around 60-70 trabs & phaco trabs.

On the other hand, fellows who were not surgically fluent got much lesser cases.

Since the duration has now been raised to 2 years, you can expect more numbers.

Work timings 9-4 pm

Usually free after OP, work is not too hectic (since there are JRs and SRs also).

No camp duties or Sunday duties.

You may have night duties occasionally (but you'll be 4th or 5th on call since there are JRs and SRs under you).

Public holidays plus lots of paid leaves (24 days in 1st yr, 30 in 2nd yr).

No peripheral postings.

No formal classes though, it's up to the fellow to read up.. Dr Subhashini ma'am who heads this fellowship is a good teacher and well versed in her subject. 

Overall, this wud be a good fellowship for a phaco surgeon.

SICS surgeons might also find it worthwhile but don't expect any personalized phaco training. They do have dry labs, wet labs and simulators in the dept so you can try learning and training on those but you have to make time for it.

Not suited for SICS beginners who are looking to learn phaco as well.