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

The parents have demanded an exemption from the gazette. The new NMC norms also mandate foreign institutions to have English as a medium of instruction and follow the curriculum as prescribed by the NMC in India. Further, these students are expected to complete an additional internship of a minimum of 12 months in India.

Medical education in the Philippines includes a two-year BS Biology pre-medicine curriculum which is a pre-requisite for the remaining four years of medicine course. The subjects taught in the two years of pre-medicine studies are not considered a part of the student’s medical training under NMC’s new norms that prescribe a minimum of over 5.5 years or 54 months of medical course for students.

The NMC, in a notification, on July 18, 2022, mentioned a one-time relaxation to foreign medical graduates who had completed their course from their institutes through online mode but had not physically attended clinical training due to the extraordinary situation brought by the Covid-19 pandemic, Russian-Ukraine war, etc.

The students would be permitted to write the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) qualifying which will allow them to undergo compulsory rotating medical internship (CRMI) – for two years. The affidavit mentioned the Russian Federation’s willingness to allow Indian students evacuated from Ukraine to continue their medical education in the Russian Federation. A similar offer has been made by the Republic of Kazakhstan.

However, none of these relief measures would be applicable to the student community studying in the Philippines since the NMC does not consider their course valid.

Hence, the parents of these students have demanded for grant of their children’s permanent registration without asking for a 12-month internship under the Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship (CRMI) Regulations, 2021.