E-Paper
NMC gives relief to med students hit by Ukraine war, Covid in China
According to the usual norms, foreign medical graduates have to complete their training along with a one-year internship at the university they are enrolled in before they appear for the FMGE exam in India.
Final-year medical students who returned to India from countries such as Ukraine and China owing to the war and the Covid-19 pandemic, but who have completed their course, will now be allowed to appear for the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), a common test that foreign medical students have to clear in order to practise medicine in India.
National Medical Commission, the apex regulator of medical education in the country, in an order dated July 28, said that final-year medical students who have completed their course on or before June 30, will be allowed to appear for FMGE. Upon qualification, students will also have to undergo the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for a period of two years.
According to the usual norms, foreign medical graduates have to complete their training along with a one-year internship at the university they are enrolled in before they appear for the FMGE exam in India. They also have to complete a one-year internship in India to get permanent registration.
“Indian students who were in the last year of their undergraduate medicine course (due to Covid-19, Russia-Ukraine war etc had to leave their foreign medical institute and return to India) and have subsequently completed their studies as also have been granted certificate of completion of course/degree by their respective institute on or before June 30, shall be permitted to appear for the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination,” the order issued by NMC read.
The order added: “Upon qualifying the FMG examination, such foreign medical graduates are required to undergo CRMI for a period of two years to make for the clinical training which could not be physically attended by them during the undergraduate medicine course in the foreign institute as also to familiarise them with the practice of medicine under Indian conditions.”
The body said that these students will be eligible to get registration only after completing the two-year CRMI and also clarified that this relaxation has been granted as a “one-time” measure and will not be treated as a precedent.
Since the Russia-Ukrain war broke out this February, over 18,000 students pursuing medicine in various colleges in the two countries returned to India. Many students from countries such as China also stayed back in India after the Covid-19 pandemic.
Dr Rohan Krishnan, national president of the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), who has been raising the issue of foreign-returned medical students, said that this order will benefit around 20,000 final-year medical students.
He also said this decision means the students get a fair opportunity to get absorbed in the system, and the government gets more trained medical professionals.
“We welcome this move. The two-year compulsory internship will allow students to get better training and will also help them get a better hang of the system,” said Dr Krishnan.
While the NMC order does not explicitly state the options for first and second-year students, experts said that they had the option to appear for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) and seek admissions to Indian medical institutes.
Health experts pointed out that FMGE is notorious for low pass percentages. National Board of Examinations data shows that only 16.5% of the students who appeared for the exam in 2020 managed to clear it.
