FMGs Internship issue in Kerala: MP writes to Health Minister

Calicut: The subject matter of foreign medical graduates in Kerala getting registered and beginning their internship in general or district hospitals has been raised once again with ongoing negotiations, especially in light of Chinese medical graduates being unable to return to their campuses for offline classes.

The Calicut MP, Sri M.K Raghavan, has written a letter to the Union Health Minister, Sri Mansukh Mandavya and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, requesting for the arrangement of clinical training facilities for the group of foreign medical graduates that fall in this category. He pointed out that many of these foreign medical graduates were getting worried about the obvious delay in the registration process for beginning their internship in Kerala.

Quoting the National Medical Commission (NMC) orders, the MP pointed out that those who had completed medical studies abroad and done internship there, need not repeat it here. Mr. Raghavan claimed that only some states were not ready to go by the NMC orders and sought a unified law on the issue, reports The Hindu

As per the law, it is mandatory for graduates from foreign medical institutes to to clear Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) to register with the Travancore-Cochin Medical Councils (TCMC) in the state. They are then required to complete a mandatory one-year internship with district or general hospitals.

The students' concerns are that the TCMC takes at least three to four months to allot provisional registration number that are valid for a year. If there are no vacancies in district or general hospitals, they will have to wait for another four to five months begin their internship. They have pointed out that the FMGE takes place only once in six months and the results take another two months to be published. This means the students may have to spend around a year in waiting before beginning their internship. It will result in a delay with regard to their preparations for getting admissions to postgraduate courses, the students added.

However, TCMC sources have said that foreign medical graduates needed to mandatorily complete the internship before getting permanent registration here because they were not familiar with the Indian conditions. They need to learn and gain clinical experience and exposure about the epidemiological and clinical profile of the local community. Also, they need to learn and get exposed to the public health delivery and referral system here. "Our stand has been upheld by the Kerala High Court. The draft regulations of the NMC have also proposed two National Exit Tests for foreign medical graduates," the sources added.

Source - Internship of foreign medical students comes to the fore again - The Hindu