Pending NMC Recognition: 2017 Batch MBBS Students of Doon Medical College Facing uncertain future

Dehradun: Around 200 students belonging to Government Doon Medical College, Dehradun are facing uncertainties regarding their future as their batch has not been granted the required recognition from the National Medical Commission (NMC).

The students, who graduated from the medical college in 2023, are claiming that the National Medical Commission (NMC) inspected the medical college recently in March and the college has also completed all necessary documentation processes.

Despite this, the Commission has not yet granted recognition to the medical college. Even after trying to reach out to the Commission through numerous emails and phone calls, the students have not received any response in this regard. The students also visited the NMC office at Dwarka.

In the absence of recognition from the Apex medical commission, these medical graduates from the 2017 batch are unable to participate in post-graduation entrance examinations such as the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET-PG) examination, Institute of National Importance Combined Entrance Test (INICET), United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE), and Professional Linguistic Assessment Board (PLAB) examination,

Apart from this, due to this absence of NMC recognition the medical graduates from the medical college are also unable to seek employment opportunities outside the State of Uttarakhand, one of the students from the 2017 batch informed Medical Dialogues.

Also Read: 3 Medical Colleges Lack NMC Recognition, Around 300 MBBS Graduates in UP face uncertain future

"We have been informed by our college authorities that the NMC inspection team found everything as per the norms and there are no deficiencies. The college authorities are claiming that the delay is from the side of NMC only. That is why, we are also considering our legal options," the student added on the condition of anonymity.

Established in 2016, Government Doon Medical College is a full-fledged tertiary Government Medical College and Hospital. The college has the affiliation from Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Uttarakhand Medical Education University. 

However, the National Medical Commission has recognized 150 MBBS seats only in respect of the students admitted in 2016-2017, who graduated in the academic year 2021-2022. 

Referring to this, a student from the 2017 MBBS batch of the medical college told Medical Dialogues, "When our senior batch passed, it was the pandemic situation and at that time offline visits were not conducted. However, in our case, NMC visited our college in March and the college authorities have informed us that everything was satisfactory and there was no problem from their end."

"We have tried to reach out to NMC in all the possible ways but there has been no response. We have written hundreds of mails and the copies of the same have been submitted to the Grievance portal of the Prime Minister as well," the student added.

Explaining how this delay is affecting their future,  he further mentioned, "If this gets delayed any further, we would not be able to appear in the entrance exam for AIIMS in November. Although we appeared in NEET PG exam, we would not be able to participate in the counselling process or pursue higher studies abroad."

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that around 300 medical graduates in Uttar Pradesh were facing a similar problem since they are unable to register with the State Medical Faculty (SMF) in the absence of recognition from the Apex medical commission.

Reportedly, the MBBS students of the 2017 batch of these three medical colleges, who graduated in 2022, have been facing a situation concerning lack of recognition for the last year. Meanwhile, the 2018 batch of MBBS students are about to appear in the exams and complete the MBBS course in 2023 and they are also worried about their future.

Raising the issue of those medical graduates in Uttar Pradesh, recently the Indian Medical Association (IMA) approached the Chief Minister of the State Yogi Adityanath and blamed the blanket permit given by NMC for this situation.

Also Read: IMA questions blanket permit given by NMC, seeks Intervention of UP CM over pending recognition for three medical colleges