"NMC is not responding… I don't know if should I do one more year of internship or I will get my registration with just one-year of internship. It's all very stressful," said 25-year-old Vishwajeet Sharma who got his degree in medicine from Xiamen Medical University China in 2021.
Sharma is among many foreign medical graduates (FMGs) who completed their medicine degree in 2020 and 2021, cleared the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam and completed the one-year mandatory internship in India to practise medicine in India but have yet not received their registration.
For months, over 3,000 FMGs have been in a frustrating ordeal. These students, who completed their medical courses abroad and underwent internships in India, have been striving to obtain their registrations. Notably, without these registrations from their respective state medical councils, these medical graduates are unable to practice medicine or pursue higher degree courses in India.
What's the issue all about?
In simpler terms, for a foreign medical graduate who is a citizen of India or are an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder and wants to pursue medicine in India they need to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination and undergo a one-year internship. After this they get the registration from their respective state medical councils. This was applicable when the graduates finished their course by physically being present in the respective college.
Now, the National Medical Council in a new circular issued on July 28, 2022, stated that students who were forced to return to India due to COVID-19 and\ the Russia-Ukraine war, were granted a special provision. These students, upon completing their studies and receiving the certificate of course completion by June 30, 2022, would be allowed to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) and have to do a two-year internship
"Once they pass the FMG examination, these foreign medical graduates are required to undergo a compulsory rotating medical internship (CRMI) for two years. This internship aims to compensate for the clinical training they missed during their undergraduate course abroad and familiarise them with the practice of medicine in India," the notification stated.
The NMC further clarified that foreign medical graduates would be eligible for permanent registration only after successfully completing the two-year CRMI. However, it emphasised that this relaxation was a one-time measure and should not be considered as a precedent for the future.
Despite these guidelines, foreign medical graduates are facing hurdles in obtaining permanent registration as state medical councils are enforcing the NMC's July 2022 notification retroactively.
"Now there are students who came back to India in 2020 and cleared the FMGE exam in 2021 (from the 2015 and 2016 batch). They were already in their one-year of mandatory internship when this new circular was released. So the issue is that (while) some states like Gujarat, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Assam, and Orissa have allowed the foreign medical graduates who passed in 2021 with one-year internship permanent registration, states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi have not done so. Therefore, there is a lot of disparity which is leading to delays in the career path of these students," said Sarvesh Pandey, General Secretary of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA).
In response to this ongoing crisis, FORDA has written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, urging him to address the disparities in the way different state medical councils are handling the issue of permanent registration for FMGs after their internships.
"Some of my friends who are from my batch have gotten their registration and are also pursuing their PG now but I couldn't sit for the PG exam as I did not have my registration. How is this fair," an FMG wondered on the condition of anonymity.
Issues with the two-year internship row
Since the notification was released in 2022, FMGs have been protesting against the two-year internship rule.
"The whole world was studying online because of COVID-19. It’s not my fault that the Russia-Ukraine war happened, right? If a student who pursued medicine in India has to undergo one-year of internship then why are we asked to do two years of internship? What more that we can learn in two years?" said Anmol Jaiswal, another FMG.
Echoing that sentiment, Pandey added: "In an internship, most candidates are collecting blood samples and other reports. You don’t need two years of internship to perfect that kind of work,"
The FMGE is a qualifying examination conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) in India. Indian students who completed their MBBS degrees in countries such as Russia, China, the Philippines, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and other foreign nations must successfully clear the FMGE to obtain a licence to practise medicine in India.
(Image source: PTI)
