“Gov’t agreed to all demands, except…”: AP FMGs on meeting with officials

The FMGs met officials including Special Chief Secretary T Krishna Babu and Dr DSVL Narsimham, Director of Medical Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh
FMGs in AP with the Gov't officials.
FMGs in AP with the Gov't officials. Pic: Sourced
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A delegation of Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) from the All India Medical Students’ Association - Foreign Medical Students’ Wing (AIMSA - FMSW), Andhra Pradesh Unit, met several state government officials yesterday, February 4, seeking a resolution to the non-issuance of their Permanent Registration (PRs) to be able to practice in India.

The FMGs met officials including Special Chief Secretary T Krishna Babu and Dr DSVL Narsimham, Director of Medical Education, Government of Andhra Pradesh.

This meeting followed an earlier meeting with Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, which took place on January 29.

According to a press statement by AIMSA-FMSW AP, the officials responded positively to the demands and assured that guidelines for counselling will be released soon, and that of Temporary Registrations (TR) and No Objection Certificates (NOC) will also be issued promptly. This would allow them to practice medicine in the state until their PRs were issued to those eligible, subject to the verification of their validity.

To recall, Compensatory Certificates are provided to FMGs who had to return to India during the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine war and attend online classes to compensate for the physical classes they missed. These certificates attest that these students appeared for their final exams in person before appearing for the FMG Exam.

However, during the meeting, the doctors encountered a problem: The government officials asked them to submit their Compensatory Certificates in a different format from their current format.

“The new format asks for specific information, such as the hours dedicated to each subject in practical sessions, with dates and times. Our parent universities must review their records to provide us with this information, which is a time-consuming process,” says an FMG who was part of the meeting, on condition of anonymity.

He adds that the AP Medical Council only accepts Compensatory Certificates in physical form. As a result, FMGs must collect the updated certificates in person from the universities in person, as it is unlikely that they would receive them via post. “Applying for visas, waiting for their approval, and making travel arrangements only add to our stress,” he says.

In addition, the process of obtaining their Compensatory Certificates from their parent universities was daunting to begin with, and FMGs are not open to going through it once again, he says. “We don’t even know if our parent universities will issue Compensatory Certificates a second time,” he worries out loud.

He expressed hope that the AP government would follow the same process as other states for PR issuance, ie verifying the genuineness of the Compensatory Certificates through the embassies of the countries where the FMGs finished their undergraduate education.

“The officials assured us that this issue will be addressed and that our grievances will be resolved in a phased manner,” he informed.

In addition, the officials also agreed to revise allotment orders from two or three years to one year for students who fall under the National Medical Commission (NMC) guidelines.

To recall, FMGs in AP staged a protest in front of the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council’s headquarters in Vijayawada on January 6, demanding the issuance of their PRs.

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