As a relief to the Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) in India, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has released a few clarifications and a one-time relaxation measure concerning the internship seats in Indian medical colleges.
In a circular released on Wednesday, May 10, the NMC announced that some recognised non-teaching hospitals will now be allowed to conduct internships for Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) only for a period of one year.
“After careful consideration of the situation and issue faced by the FMGs in order to explore seats to complete their internship, it is decided by UGMEB to validate the list of Recognized Non-teaching Hospitals for CRMI issued by the erstwhile Medical Council of India, for a period of one year from the issue of this circular i.e., up to May 2024, for the conduct of internship for Foreign Medical Graduates only,” the circular stated.
The commission has released a list of 650+ recognised non-teaching hospitals that are eligible to conduct CRMI for Foreign Medical graduates. It has been added that the allotment of FMGs in these non-teaching Hospitals shall also be done only through concerned state medical councils.
Out of all the states and UTs, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh have the highest number of recognised non-teaching hospitals with 74 in Maharashtra and 72 in Uttar Pradesh. In Rajasthan, where a large number of FMGs staged protests against the lack of internship seats, 62 non-medical hospitals have been recognised for the purpose. In Delhi, there are 21 recognised hospitals.
Additionally, a few military and railway hospitals from across the country have also been reserved for FMG internships.
‘States cannot deny seats to non-domicile FMGs’
In another major clarification, the NMC stressed that the state medical councils shall not deny allotment of medical colleges for internship to FMGs on the basis of their domicile.
“An FMG can complete his/her internship from medical college in any state/UT if found eligible otherwise,” the circular said.
The circular was released following representation from various FMGs and other stakeholders from state medical councils about the issues being faced by FMGs in India.
Other clarifications
The NMC has also clarified that the FMGs who have completed the first one year of their internship in any medical college in India will be eligible to complete the remaining year of their internship in another medical college, state or UT, depending on the availability of seats.
This provision of two-year internship is applicable only to those Foreign Medical Graduates who were in the last year of their medical course and returned to India due to the COVID-19 pandemic or the Russia-Ukraine war.
Another issue that the state medical councils highlighted was that since NMC had mandated a stipend equivalent to Indian graduates to be given to the FMGs, many colleges and hospitals have pulled out their seats due to no budgetary provisions for the same.
About the same, NMC explained, “The Commission vide circular dated 19.10.2022 has already clarified that the amount of stipend to be paid to the interns is to be decided/fixed by the appropriate authority applicable to the Institution/University or State. The implementation of these guidelines/instructions/
Moreover, it also added that a stipend is only payable to FMG interns in their second year of internship, as one year is in lieu of the missed clinical training during their MBBS course at any foreign medical institute.
