FMGs facing troubles due to pending Eligibility Certificates, Google form created to gather data

New Delhi: Raising the issue of foreign medical graduates, who are facing problems in obtaining the eligibility certificates from the National Medical Commission (NMC), doctors have now planned to take up the matter to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MohFW).

In this regard, a Google Form has been created on July 14 and sharing the same, former vice president of the Indian Medical Association Medical Students' Network (IMA-MSN), Dr. Meet Gohnia has asked the medical graduates from abroad to submit their problems and issues regarding the matter.

"This Google form is made to gather data about FMG students whose Eligibility Certificate is pending in NMC from months. This serious issue is discussed with Ministry of Health and data which will be gathered by this form will be used to get solution. As FMGs can't give FMGE because of this, Request to all FMGs to share this among your colleagues. So that we can get exact Idea about this problem," mentioned the Google Form.

In the form, the FMGs have been asked to share several details including their name, name of their institute or university, year of passing the final MBBS examination, date of application in NMC for eligibility certificate, application number or unique ID provided by NMC, time period for which they have been waiting for the eligibility certificate, any other issues regarding the eligibility certificate.

Also Read: NMC gives deadline to FMGE June 2023 candidates applying for Eligibility Certificate

The link of the Google Form is as follows: https://forms.gle/e5QqycfTxafx5H1L8

Sharing the form on his Twitter handle, Dr. Gohnia informed that the collected data shall be submitted to the Union Health Ministry. "This data will be submitted to @MoHFW_INDIA as discussed. So, share with maximum FMG Students who are facing issue in getting Eligibility Certificate and can't give FMG Exam because of it," he mentioned in the Tweet.

According to the notification released by the National Medical Commission (NMC), the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) for the June cycle will be held on July 30, 2023. It is mandatory for the medical graduates from abroad to clear the FMGE test in order to get registered and practice in India. However, the doctors cannot register or appear in the FMGE test without an eligibility certificate. 

Despite completing all the required procedure in this regard, several candidates are facing problems in obtaining the mandatory eligibility certificate from the Apex medical commission. 

Speaking to Medical Dialogues in this regard, Dr. Meet Gohnia said, "Even the FMGs who applied in 2021, 2022 and earlier months of 2023 are facing the problem. Their application is pending at some level that they are not getting the certificate. Till then they cannot appear in the FMGE test. Next FMGE is at the end of this month and last day to submit this certificate is 20th July. When we raised the matter before the Health Ministry, they asked for the data. So, I created the Google Form."

Earlier this year, NMC had set a 30 days deadline for the students pursuing medical courses abroad to complete their applications in the eligibility web portal and fulfill their deficiencies.

The Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of NMC had further warned that if the applicants fail to attend to the deficiencies, fill in the same information repeatedly, or do not submit their applications within 30 days, their applications will not be further considered and the pending applications will be treated as closed.

A list of 2875 applicants along with their father's names and application tracking numbers was also published by NMC in the Public Notice issued on April 18, 2023.

NMC Ethics Board issued the notice after taking note of the fact that some applications for issuance of eligibility certificate were pending with the applicants only (pending with initiator) for more than 6 months of time.

Also Read: NMC gives Deadline to Medical Students Abroad to fulfill deficiencies on pending applications for Eligibility Certificate