Medical Students Studying in Philippines Seek Exemption from NMC FMG Licentiate Regulations, Parents protest at Jantar Mantar

New Delhi: Protesting against the National Medical Commission's (NMC) notification that made the Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) pursuing MBBS in the Philippines ineligible to practice medicine in India, the parents of such students have asked the government to grant a one-time exemption for the students.

Raising their voice in this regard, more than 200 parents recently gathered at the Jantar Mantar in New Delhi and later staged a protest in front of the NMC office in Dwarka, New Delhi as well.

However, the protesting parents of such foreign medical students in the Philippines did not receive any response from the officials, adds Education Times.

Medical Dialogues reported earlier this month that the parents of such medicos recently held a press conference and referred to the issue of rising fees and an inadequate number of medical seats in government medical institutes.

They pointed out that even though the students who had enrolled in the MD programmes in Philippines before the publication of Gazette notification of the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate (FMGL) Regulations 2021 have been exempted, those enrolled in the BS degree at the time have not.

The majority of medical colleges in Philippines offer a composite program with first a two-year BS course and thereafter a 4 year MD course (Graduate /Primary Medical Course being equivalent to MBBS). Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that with its official gazette notification that is 18th November 2021 on the issue of (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, the NMC had specified that henceforth the minimum duration of the MBBS curriculum outside the country has to be 54 months (4.5 years).

Also Read: Parents of FMGs from Philippines oppose NMC's internship rule, demand permanent registration

Earlier, a student had challenged these new regulations before the Rajasthan High Court and filed a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) against these rules. Apart from this, NMC also received and considered the representations from medical students who are pursuing BS Courses in Philippines, prior to publication of Gazette of India i.e. FMGL Regulations 2021, seeking exemption/ special dispensation.

The bone of contention was that while the actual MD course ( Graduate /Primary Medical Course being equivalent to MBBS) was of 4 years that is lesser than the required duration but the students in Phillipines were also asked to go through the BS degree, a 2 year program, which when accounted would mean a total duration fo 6 years which would be above the required norm of 54 months and hence recognizable.

Issuing a Public notice on March 25, 2022, NMC analyzed the course structure in detail and gave its decision on the matter. NMC noted that BS and MD course are two separate degrees in Philippines. BS Course cannot be equated/included with MBBS course. Therefore, after the publication of Gazette Notification dated 18.11.2021 i.e. NMC's FMGL Regulations 2021, the students who have already taken admission for any foreign medical qualification/course which is not equivalent to the MBBS Course in India, cannot be treated as eligible qualification for registration to practice medicine in India. Whereas, the students who have taken admission in MD course in Philippines prior to FMGL Regulations 2021 can be considered subject to fulfilling other prevailing eligibility criteria for registration.

NMC's decision affected around 10,000 Indian medical students who were pursuing the BS course in the Philippines. Even though the Indian Embassy in Milan in the Philippines wrote to the NMC seeking relief for those students enrolled in the BS course, NMC turned down the request of the Indian Embassy to accept the BS course as a part of their undergraduate medical education curriculum.

One of the reasons why NMC took the concerned decision was that the time frame for MBBS in the Philippines was not the same as in India. While the duration of the MD course in the Philippines is 48 months, MBBS in India takes more than 54 months.

Commenting on the matter, a Health Ministry official told Education Times on the condition of anonymity, “MBBS after class XII is of four and a half years duration in India, whereas BS in the Philippines is actually classes XI and XII, so there is no parity. Ideally, FMGL 2021 regulations should be applied prospectively and not retrospectively. However, BS is a basic course and most students do not even clear NEET when they opt to study in the Philippines.”

While NMC demands a license to practise in the country from where the aspirants have pursued MBBS, the Philippines does not allow the foreign students to write the licensing exam unless their home country has a reciprocal agreement with the Philippines. 

Referring to this, Anuj Goyal, co-founder, Get My University told ET, “India does not share a reciprocal agreement, so students can not write the licensing exam and are unable to fulfil the FMGL regulation. Hence, their education will not be considered valid in India.”

“The average cost of education in the Philippines is Rs 35 lakh, whereas in government medical colleges in states such as Kerala and Karnataka, it is approximately Rs 55 lakh on average. However, if any student has scored less than 550 in NEET, the cost immediately rises to Rs 70 lakh,” Goyal added.

Pointing out that the Indian students have been visiting the Philippines to study Medicine for the past two decades and how they came back to practise medicine in India, a parent os a student pursuing MD at the University of Perpetual Health Systems, Manila told the Daily that this has emerged as a recent problem.

Commenting on the matter, another parent at the protest site, whose daughter is pursuing MD from AMA School of Medicine, Philippines, said, “It is a problem for students who want to serve the country but cannot do so because of seat constraints. In the Philippines, medical education is in English and many doctors from the Philippines are recruited in the US, so the quality of the medical education is not a problem. We want a one-time exemption from the government for the students who went to study BS in the Philippines before 2021.”

Also Read: Parents of Medical Students Studying in Philippines Seek Exemption from NMC FMG Licentiate Regulations