National Medical Commission on 18 November last year (NMC) issued a notification that FMGs can only do internships in medical college hospitals and said that it should set aside 7.5% (reduced from 10% earlier) internship seats for them.
The NMC has also stipulated that the FMG must complete the internship within two years of passing the screening test. The hardest hit are Tamil Nadu’s FMGs as it accounts for the largest number of people clearing the screening test. “Just 230 seats were available for internship in government colleges in Tamil Nadu, while around 600 were looking for FMG slots. Many of them have already lost five months in their desperate hunt for internship slots,” said Senthil Kumar, who did his MBBS from Russia. The Tamil Nadu chief minister had written to the NMC in January asking the state to allow FMGs to do internships in government hospitals and simplify the process for FMGs to join internships. There is no response from NMC.
With the extraordinary delay and uncertainty in NEET-PG examinations and counselling in the last two years, thousands of medical graduates are trying to leave for the UK and some hundreds for the US. At the same time, more than 20,000 FMGs appear for the screening test in June and December annually. The pass percentage for this extremely difficult exam is around 20%. FMGs must be NEET-qualified to be issued a certificate of eligibility by the NMC to join medical courses abroad and once again they have to pass the screening test and then complete a one-year compulsory internship, which is the study of Indian Medical graduates in their final year.
Some top medical colleges like AIIMSJIPMER in Pondicherry and MAMC in Delhi do not allow FMGs to do internships in their hospitals. Delhi’s RML Hospital allows internship but seat demand is very high with more than 750 applicants for 230 seats. RML has so many internship seats available because it is a new medical college in which no batch has reached the final year yet. “FMG is selected on the basis of interview. But only those with high-level contacts, such as children of bureaucrats, manage to get internship slots there,” the alleged and fmg From Tamil Nadu who did medicine from Ukraine.
The maximum number of FMGs who have passed the screening test is from Delhi, Tamil Nadu. Karnataka and Kerala. “Private medical colleges ask for huge amounts of money to allow students to do internships and even government colleges charge fees for internships. Now that the NMC has said that they cannot charge for internships, maybe things will change in the government sector, but private colleges will not stop. A private college had asked for Rs 22 lakh for a one-year internship, which is almost equal to what he spent on his entire medical education abroad. We have already taken education loan for study abroad and hence it is not a viable option. This forces the students to look for slots in other states. There are very few FMGs from Odisha and hence there are vacant slots, but language is a barrier while doing internship,” said an FMG still waiting to find internship slot in Delhi. love the state Maharashtra And Gujarat only allows FMGs of the state to do internships in their colleges.
It takes around seven to eight years or more for an FMG to become a practicing doctor – about six years to study MBBS abroad, a year to prepare for the screening test and clear it and then a One-year internship, which can be two years or more. Slot not available. Since 2002, when the screening test was introduced, 2.6 lakh FMGs have appeared for it and more than 51,400 have passed it.
While the NMC’s notification that medical colleges have to pay FMG interns equivalent to the stipend given to interns in state government colleges was a relief, restricting internships only in medical college hospitals resulted in them getting one slot. May have to wait for more than a year. Instead of being easy for doctors to come back to India and practice, it became more and more difficult.