Registration of foreign MBBS holders only after 2-yr internship: NMC

Satya Prakash

New Delhi, July 28

Final year MBBS students studying abroad who were forced to leave their college due to the Russia-Ukraine war or the Covid pandemic but subsequently completed their course and were granted certificate of completion will be permitted to appear in Foreign Medical Graduation (FMG) Examination, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has told the Supreme Court.

“Thereafter, upon clearing the examination, such FMGs are required to undergo Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years to make up for the clinical training which they could not physically attend during the undergraduate medical course in their foreign institutes concerned. The internship will also familiarise them with the practice of medicine under Indian conditions,” the NMC said in an affidavit.

“The foreign medical graduates will be eligible to get registration only after completing the internship for two years,” the NMC said, adding the scheme had been approved in its eighth meeting. After perusing the NMC affidavit, a Bench led by Justice Hemant Gupta on July 25 disposed of the matter, saying, “No further orders are called…”

On April 29, the SC had ruled that foreign MBBS degree holders can’t be given provisional registration to complete their internship in India without completing the clinical training in physical form. However, in view of a large number of Indian medical students coming back from Ukraine, it had directed the NMC to frame a scheme as a one-time measure within two months to allow such student to undergo clinical training in India. In its compliance affidavit, the NMC said following the SC verdict, it consulted the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Ministry of External Affairs and as a “one-time measure” decided to frame a scheme and grant relaxation to foreign medical graduates.