As many as 15,000 Indian students who took admissions to medical colleges in the Philippines and Ukraine in 2021, are staring at uncertainty due to government guidelines on Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate (FMGL) Regulation 2021 by the National Medical Commission (NMC). There is further risk to the careers of another 25,000 students who are planning to study Medicine in 2023 in countries including the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
Confusion on guidelines
“There are series of advisories which are floating from multiple countries creating a huge confusion for the prospective students planning to take admission in 2023. Indian High Commissions in these countries are issuing partial advisories without objective explanations,” says Anuj Goyal, career counsellor, GetMyUniversity.
A student (on the condition of anonymity) who wants to enrol in the medical college in Kyrgyzstan says, “High Commissions are unable to give satisfactory answers and are unable to figure out the local licencing laws of the countries. The students are unable to derive the actual information on the local regulations which is increasing uncertainty.” The countries under CIS grant independent registration to practise Medicine to all medical students after they complete the residency/postgraduate speciality diploma. It usually takes 8-9 years to complete the PG residency. Due to this, the students are left with a limited time to complete their India registration process (Next 1 + internship + Next 2), which makes their foreign degree invalid, says Goyal.
“Though these countries are claiming to give junior doctor registration after six-year MBBS education, the junior doctors are not allowed to practise independently in their own countries and can only work under the supervision of a doctor. Any student studying in CIS countries will never be able to practise in India and will not qualify to work in a foreign country too,” explains Goyal.
Need for NMC intervention
Hoping to get clear guidelines from the NMC, Goyal says, “We shall look forward for an advisory from NMC which clearly specifies the nature of registration in detail. Whether just a registration as a junior doctor will suffice or a registration of license of independentmedical practice is required like that of India.”
A student on the condition of anonymity says, “We are regularly requesting NMC to clarify the guidelines on acceptance and validity of foreign medical degree, but have not received an objective answer. This silence of the NMC is making the overall scenario worrisome as scores of desperate medical students are seeking clarity.”
“The move will make the study abroad option for Indian medical aspirants quite unattractive. Furthermore, this will reduce the number of students going out of the country to pursue Medicine,” says Dr Srinivas, ADG, Medical Education, Ministry of Health. “Having a 10–year cap is mandatory for all MBBS students including those studying in India. The move was to keep a check on the number of years that students took to complete MBBS. The directive was aimed to regulate the long years wasted by few students to complete the MBBS course,” says Dr Srinivas.
NMC guidelines on FMGL
NMC has produced a Gazette regulation dated November 18, 2021 (FMGL Regulations 2021) with conditions to be fulfilled by FMGs to get permission to register for NEXT in India. As per condition 4(b) of FMGL Regulations 2021, it is mandatory for MBBS Abroad students to get a licence to practise from the host country. On June 26, 2023, the NMC also presented NEXT Regulation 2023, which laid down an additional critical condition that the whole medical course has to be completed within 10 years else the Medicine degree of the students will become invalid. In the case of Abroad Medical Education this will include the following steps:
(A) undergraduate studies, (B) 12 months internship, (C) registration to practise in a foreign country, (D) NEXT – I, (E) 12 months internship in India (F) NEXT II. Clause 4(B) about registration is creating discomfort to most of the countries as they are finding it difficult to grant licences to Indian nationals at par with their local students. This is how countries are responding.
– They have refused to give licence to FMGs as medical practitioners.
– Countries have refused to explain the process of registration as doctors in their jurisdictions or share their local medical acts
– Students are awarded registration as medical practitioners only after they complete postgraduate residency.