Indian medical students who returned to India due to COVID-19 and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and have successfully completed the programme on or before 30 June, will be allowed to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), the National Medical Commission said on Friday, 29 July.
The NMC’s (Undergraduate Medical Education Board) statement will bring relief to several students who have made appeals for the same since their return.
However, those who qualify for the FMGE will be mandated to undergo a Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years.
The NMC called the move a “one time measure” and said that it shall not be used as “precedence in the future.” The foreign medical graduates will be eligible to get registration only after completing the two-year CRMI.
In a release the NMC said:
“In pursuance to the order passed by the Supreme Court on April 29, it is informed that the Indian students who were in the last year of their undergraduate medicine course (had to leave their foreign medical institute and return to India due to COVID-19, Russia -Ukraine war etc) and have subsequently completed their studies as also have been granted a certificate of completion of the course by their respective institute, on or before June 30, 2022, shall be permitted to appear in FMG exam."
"Thereafter, upon qualifying the FMG examination, such foreign medical graduates are required to undergo CRMI for a period of two years to make up 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,” it added.
Mint reports that about 40,000 students, who were studying medicine in Ukraine and China, have returned home.
The NMC, since 2021, has been considering allowing these final year returnee students to complete their education from their parent institution remotely and then appear for the FMGE.
On 29 April, the Supreme Court had directed the regulatory body to form a scheme within two months which enables MBBC students, affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the COVID pandemic, to complete their clinical training at Indian medical colleges as a one-time measure.
(With inputs from Mint.)
(At The Quint, we are answerable only to our audience. Play an active role in shaping our journalism by becoming a member. Because the truth is worth it.)