New Delhi: The National Medical Association (NMC) on Saturday said that the Ukraine-returned Indian MBBS students who may not have been able to complete their mandatory 12-month internship due to the ongoing strife will be allowed to complete the remaining internship in India.
The NMC further said that the students are allowed to do internships provided they have cleared the foreign medical graduate exam (FMGE) before applying for such internships here.
In a circular entitled “Guidelines for registration of Foreign Medical Graduates”, the National Medical Commission (NMC) today extended to war-affected students the relief it had granted on November 18, 2021, to Indian MBBS students returning from abroad due to Covid.
The new circular adds the term “war” alongside “Covid” while describing compelling circumstances requiring the exemption.
It says, “It has been observed that there are also some foreign medical graduates with incomplete internship due to such compelling situations, which are beyond their control such as the pandemic Covid and war, etc. Considering the agony and stress faced by these graduates, their application to complete the remaining part of internship in India is considered eligible. The same may be processed by state medical councils provided the candidates have cleared the FMGE before applying for completion of internship in India,” the NMC circular issued today said. The NMC’s parent notification governing the Foreign Medical Graduates, however, requires migrating students to complete an MBBS course and internship abroad from the same college.
It says, “No foreign medical graduate shall be granted permanent registration in India unless he has undergone a course leading to a foreign medical degree with a minimum duration of 54 months; undergone an internship for minimum 12 months in the same foreign medical institution.”