No provisions in IMC, NMC Acts to accommodate foreign medicos into Indian Medical Colleges: MoS Health

New Delhi: The Union Minister for State for Health and Family Welfare Dr Bharati Pawar has recently stated that there are no such provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 as well as in the regulations to accommodate or transfer medical students from any foreign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges.

The MoS Health was asked to provide details on the total number of medical students who have returned from Ukraine and are seeking admission into medical colleges in the country, State, gender and year of study-wise and the reasons for the delay in accommodating them in medical colleges in the country. The member further sought to know whether Government has set a deadline to begin the admission process of these students; and whether Government has taken note of the challenges faced by these students, such as retrieval of transcripts from Ukrainian universities, and if so, what assistance will be provided to these students.

In a response to the questions raised by CPI MP Binoy Viswam in Rajya Sabha, the MoS Health Bharati Pawar has informed that from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) received information about 20,000 Indian students who have returned from Ukraine.

"Foreign Medical Students/Graduates are either covered under "Screening Test Regulations, 2002" or "Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021". There are no such provisions in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956 and the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 as well as the Regulations to accommodate or transfer medical students from any foreign medical institutes to Indian medical colleges," she stated.

Pawar further inform the Upper House that no permission has been given by the NMC to transfer or accommodate any foreign medical students in any Indian medical institute/university.

As per information received from MEA, the Indian Embassy in Kyiv has communicated with all the concerned Universities in Ukraine for providing transcripts and other documents in a smooth manner to the students.

"All details have been provided on the website of the Embassy to assist students to address any related issues'" she added.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that while responding to a RTI query, the National Medical Commission (NMC) had clarified that the State Governments cannot take a call regarding inclusion of Ukraine returned medicos in the Indian medical colleges.

NMC further clarified that the matter of accommodating the medical students, who were forced to flee the war-torn Ukraine, is being considered by the Commission and no other requests would be entertained for now.

Now with such a clarification from the Apex medical body, now around 18,000 medical students, who had to come home after the war, have no other choice but to wait until NMC uploads its policy decision on its website.