The National Medical Commission (NMC) has called 118 Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) for personal hearings who have been facing eligibility criteria issues. This was shared on X (formerly Twitter) by former National Vice-President of the Indian Medical Association - Medical Students' Network (IMA - MSN) Dr Meet Ghonia. He posted, "Extremely thankful to @OfficeOf_MM for taking up this issue of eligibility certificate and arrange personal hearing for same to solve it. #MedTwitter"
The notice issued by the NMC reads, "the records upto year 2021 (on the basis of receipt of applications for issue of Eligibility Certificate as per the portal) have been scrutinized and 255 cases have been found out of which 137 cases are pending with MHA for Security Clearance to address National Security concerns and cannot be proceeded further without security clearance. With respect to the remaining 118 cases, it has been decided to give them an opportunity to be heard in person in hatches and on basis of date of receipt of their applications to expedite the processing of the eligibility certificates."
As per the notice, the candidates are called in three batches. Here are the details of the batches and the date of hearing —
22.09.2023 — First batch from Sr No 1 to 40
25.09.2023 — Second batch from Sr No 41 to 80
27.09.2023 — Third batch from Sr No 81 to 118
Welcoming this step, Dr Meet Ghonia told EdexLive, "I hope this issue will be solved as the development from NMC is positive and good for the applicants." Without the eligibility certificate, the medical graduates won't be able to appear for the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE) and without appearing for the exam, they won't be able to practice in India, he stressed.
Further, the notice stressed that if the given opportunity is not availed, it will be understood that the applicant is not interested in the personal hearing and accordingly, no further opportunity will be provided.
Back story
This notice was issued after a Google Form containing data of the affected students was forwarded to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. This Google Form was created and circulated by Dr Meet Ghonia who said, "As the NMC was not responding, upon reaching out to officials from the ministry, they have instructed me to coordinate and collect the data."
Speaking to EdexLive, Dr Meet Ghonia said he was made aware of the issue in the first week of July and on July 14, he initiated a Google Form to collect data on students facing the issue. "After 10 days from July 14, I submitted the collected data to the ministry and NMC," he said.
"The data I collected from the forms shows that we received 480 responses from 2015 to 2023 batches of students. And the notice issued mentions that NMC scrutinised data along with the details shared by me," Ghonia said.
Further, he highlighted that the issue of the FMGE eligibility certificate has been there for three to four years due to security issues. Additionally, "NMC was not aware of this problem as the Medical Council of India (MCI) was in charge of issuing the certificates," he claims.
When asked if they wrote to NMC in these three to four years, he alleged that the NMC was not responding to any of the queries of the students.
All together, now, the doctor seems hopeful that the issue will be resolved as the personal hearing will benefit applicants.
