Students returning from Ukraine can do medical internship in India

Indian medical students who returned from Ukraine can finish their unfinished internships in India after clearing a screening test, the National Medical Commission (NMC) said, considering the compelling situation they had to face due to the Russian invasion there.

The Commission said that state medical councils can process their applications for internships after they have cleared the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination.

Thousands of students, especially those undergoing medical education, have returned to India after Russia invaded Ukraine two weeks back.

“The state medical councils should ensure the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) should be cleared by the candidates seeking registration in India. If the candidate is found fulfilling criteria, provisional registration may be granted by the state medical councils for a 12 months’ internship or balance period, as the case may be,” the NMC circular said.

The commission stressed that the state medical councils should obtain an undertaking from medical colleges to ensure no fee is charged from the foreign students towards their internship.

“The stipend and other facilities to FMGs should be extended equivalent to Indian medical graduates being trained at government medical colleges as fixed by the appropriate authority,” it said.

Also read: ‘Tomorrow’ never comes for 700 Indian students stuck in Sumy, Ukraine

If the students have completed their graduation abroad, certain provisions in the FMGL Regulations, 2021 will not be applicable on them. Earlier, as per rules students who completed their degrees in foreign countries had to do double internships in that country and in India to earn their degrees and be eligible to practise in India.

The NMC said this would apply to undergraduate medical students who joined a foreign institution prior to November 18.

On the number of such foreign-returned students a college can take, the NMC said, a college can admit upto 7.5% of the total permitted seats.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) had on Friday urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya to accommodate the evacuated Indian medical students in existing medical colleges in the country through an appropriate disbursed distribution.