The Union Health Ministry and the National Medical Commission are exploring the possibility of relaxing provisions of the NMC (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021, or finding alternatives to enable Ukraine-return medical students to complete their courses in private colleges in India or abroad.

Officials from the NMC, Health Ministry, MEA and NITI Aayog will soon hold meetings where the issue will be reviewed on humanitarian grounds and looked at sympathetically, sources said.

According to the provisions of the National Medical Commission (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021, the entire course, training and internship or clerkship shall be done outside India in the same foreign medical institution throughout the course of the study.

The provisions also state that no part of medical training and internship shall be done in India or in any country other than the one from where the primary medical qualification is obtained. An official source said that, presently, there are no norms and regulations under the NMC regulations to accommodate medical students, who were studying abroad and had to return to India midway, in Indian medical colleges in between an academic session.