Challenge

In such a volatile situation, the press conference was to be organized and keeping the excitement level at bass, discontent of NMMTA had to be conveyed. There was a lot at stake as thousands were about to lose jobs and apprehension was magnifying at a tremendous speed. Medical practitioners who held degrees in Biochemistry and Microbiology were to lose job and there was no way of looking back.

Result/Key Achievement

Protest by NMMTA was well discussed across all media platforms
There were positive inputs about the status of NMMTA and their protest was taken with lot of positivity
The protest which was held at different places was termed as a success
And press release was collected by media, administer and even government representatives to hear the plea of NMMTA who were requesting for addition of MSc degree holders in the guideline.

"Health Ministry asked to rethink rules for diagnostic lab jobs: National M.Sc Medical Teachers' Association"
Communication Objective: To convince the government to rethink their new rules for diagnostic lab jobs. Work towards getting public support for growing agitation, unrest in different states and win sympathy, so that government is forced to call back new set of rules which bars MSc. students from becoming qualified lab assistants unless they are adorned with PhD degree. Efforts were to be made to show that such a rule will lead to medical brain drain and India will be left with frustrated Medical M.Sc students who will not even be required for signing test reports.

Situation:
The new rule states that all diagnostic laboratories should have doctors who are either registered with Medical Council of India (MCI) or State Medical Council. Many corporate hospitals as well as diagnostic laboratories employ Medical MSc postgraduates for interpreting and signing purpose of laboratory test reports. Recently, Rajasthan and Jharkhand has implemented the rules but it has been a cause of unrest across the nation.

Strategy:

Built a scenario which would instantly garner wanted sympathy for the professionals who are already working and students
Talk to media how this new rule could affect a lot of students who are pursuing Biochemistry and Microbiology for finding a career in laboratories
Find out approximately how many private hospitals and laboratories are there in the country who hire MSc students
Call experts to share their views as it has already rolled out in Rajasthan & Jharkhand

Working Methodology:
After taking an insight of the situation in the country, we discussed the scenario and invited only those media persons who had soft corners for the students and medical practitioners. For rest, we circulated a press release to update about the scenario and justify the protest carried by NMMTA. Press Release was drafted in a way which draws sympathy and apprise media of the present scenario and provide them enough data for analysis and comparative study. Our aim was to support nationwide protest and give enough material to media for doing a story.