Foreign medical graduates have appealed to the Health Ministry for intervention to get their certificate of permanent registration from the respective State Medical Councils (SMC) without which these doctors cannot work in India, despite having completed their course and subsequent one-year internship.
The problem for these students started when they were forced to return to India during the COVID pandemic. After passing the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) and despite having completed their compulsory internship as mandated by the National Medical Commission (NMC) — as per the previous guidelines — a notice that was issued on July 28, 2022, was being enforced retrospectively, they complained.
These doctors cannot work as their permanent registration is withheld in some States while their peers in other States, having achieved the same milestones in passing MBBS, clearing FMGE, starting and completing internship have received their permanent registration.
The Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) has taken up their cause and complained about the disparities in the permanent registration of the foreign medical students post-internship, adopted by many SMCs.
Notice misinterpreted
In their letter to Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, the Association said that a few SMCs had misinterpreted the notice released by the NMC dated July 28, 2022, and were refusing to issue permanent registration status to the students.
The NMC’s July notice said that Indian students, who were in the last year of their undergraduate (UG) medicine course and had completed the final year online, on or before June 30, 2022, would be permitted for FMGE and upon qualifying would be completing the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years.
Explaining that discrepancies were happening because of the way different States had interpreted and implemented the NMC notice, FORDA general secretary Dr. Sarvesh Pandey said that this was now playing havoc with the lives of doctors.
Anywhere between 3,000-5,000 doctors have been adversely hit.
States such as Delhi, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Kerala have denied or withheld permanent registration for FMGE candidates with one year of internship experience whereas States like Gujarat, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam, Orissa, Telangana, Karnataka, amongst others have issued the permanent registration and given post-graduation seats to students.
Fair resolution
Now in a collective plea to the concerned authorities, the affected foreign medical graduates are urging for a fair resolution to the issue.
“We are suffering for the past 11 months and have been unable to work or start post graduation while our peers have moved on and are progressing in their careers,” said a student who has completed his MBBS from China and is awaiting his permanent registration.
Another affected student noted that their provisional certificates and hospital placements were based on the previous guidelines, and they should not suffer due to the subsequent changes.
FORDA has proposed that students who had already passed the FMGE, those undergoing internship, and others who had already completed the internship before the issuance of the July 28th, 2022 notice, should be exempted from the purview of the public notice as the rest of the students including their peers have been.
Said FORDA president Dr. Aviral Mathur, “Students who had qualified for the FMGE examination before the NMC notice came in, have been give permanent registration by some SMCs after one year of internship and they have moved on in their career or taken up PG courses as well. But students who are from the same batch and qualified for the same examination, are being treated differently elsewhere in the country,” he noted.
Uniformity needed
“Now, taking back permanent registration of students who have already been given is not the way forward. We want to see uniformity across all the States and for permanent registration numbers to be provided to the rest of the FMGs as well,” he added.
FORDA has sought the Health Ministry’s help to resolve the issue and direct States to take a uniform approach.
“But students who are from the same batch and qualified for the same examination, are being treated differently elsewhere in the country”Dr. Aviral Mathur FORDA president
