Foreign Medical Graduates (FMG) on Monday, November 28, conducted a protest at the office of the National Medical Commission (NMC). This protest was a part of an ongoing agitation by the FMGs against the NMC's notice from July 29, 2022, making the Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship (CRMI) mandatory for two years for those FMGs who were granted their UG course completion certificates on or before June 30, 2022.
While the NMC, as a one-time measure, had allowed these students to sit for the Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE) even though they had not undergone clinical training due to various reasons (pandemic, lockdowns and the war in Ukraine), as a "relaxation". However, the Commission added that these students, who had attended a few months of their UG medical education online, will have to undergo two years of the CRMI in order to "make up for the clinical training which could not be physically attended" and to "familiarise them with the practice of medicine under Indian conditions". The NMC added that the FMGs will be able to register for a license to practice medicine in India only after completing two years of the internship.
On Monday, about 300-350 students protested in front of the NMC headquarters in New Delhi, demanding a roll-back of this two-year rule, sources informed EdexLive. "It is an injustice. One year of the internship itself requires more than four to six months until the FMGE is completed, which we have to clear in order to qualify for the internship. We also have to wait for a vacancy in medical colleges to complete our internship," Dr Shahroz Khan, a 2017 batch FMG from Nantong Medical University in China, tells EdexLive. The relatively lower availability of internship seats for FMGs also contributes to their woes, he adds. As per NMC guidelines, the maximum quota for internship distribution to FMGs in a medical college is required to be limited to an additional 7.5% of the total allowed seats. "If they wish to compensate for the online classes and loss of clinical training for a few months, they could have extended the internship for about three to four months. A whole year of internship is not justified," says Dr Khan. The students also point out that no such provision for an extra year of the internship was made for Indian medical graduates who also had to undergo online classes due to the pandemic.
The students are also upset about the alleged mistimed release of the list of state-wise approved medical colleges allowed to offer CRMI to FMGs. As per NMC regulations released in November 2021, the students are only allowed to complete their internship from these recognised colleges and they will be allocated seats in these colleges only through the respective State Medical Councils. While the NMC claims that they had released the list of approved colleges to the State Medical Councils in July this year, the students claim that this list was not available to them when they proceeded to apply for internships after clearing the FMGE. "The guidelines mention that internships for FMGs will be accepted ONLY if done from medical colleges and institutions approved by NMC. However, no such list was included at the time of the aforementioned new guidelines. Hence, FMGs joined internships according to the latest list available on the official website at that time," said Twitter user Dr Subhav Ramnani, explaining the reasons for the protest.
On September 21, the NMC released a public notice reiterating that students can only complete their internships from the list of approved colleges. It also directs the State Medical Councils that "FMGs may be posted first in colleges that have been newly opened and have yet to be recognised." Then, on October 21, the NMC issued yet another notice stating that it has been receiving "numerous requests/representations regarding medical colleges/institutes allowed to conduct CRMI for FMGs." As part of this notice, the NMC released a comprehensive list of all colleges approved to conduct CRMI in India. "This means FMGs who joined the internship after November 18, 2021, were required to do so [as per] the list which was only provided on October 21, 2022. How is that possible? NMC wants all these FMGs to RESTART their internship in their approved list," wrote Dr Ramnani on Twitter.
"The NMC, in its affidavit submitted to the Supreme Court in July this year, said that it will provide "relaxation" to the FMGs who had suffered due to the pandemic and the war in Ukraine. However, the notice released on July 28, 2022, requiring these students to undergo two years of internships is more a punishment than relief," says Andrew Matthews, a member of the FMG Parents' Association.