Medical students who returned to India will get govt support: Minister

Indians studying medicine abroad who could not complete their internship due to “compelling situations” such as war and the pandemic will be able to do so here, the government said on Friday.

This will, however, be subject to the condition that such candidates must have cleared the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (screening test), which is mandatory for Indian students with foreign medical qualification to practise medicine in India, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

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Pawar was responding to a question on whether the government proposes to frame a scheme for admission of students who have returned from China and those evacuated from Ukraine to medical colleges in the country and also to allow them to do their internship here.

She said Section 14 of the NMC Act, 2019, prescribes conducting of a uniform entrance examination, namely the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), to all medical educational institutions at undergraduate and postgraduate level.

Also, Clause 8 (IV) of Eligibility Requirement for Taking Admission in an Undergraduate Medical Course in a Foreign Medical Institution Regulation, 2002, provides for that any Indian citizens/Overseas Citizen of India intending to obtain primary medical qualification from any medical institution outside India, on or after May 2018, will have to mandatorily qualify  NEET for admission to MBBS course.

The result of the NEET will deem to be treated as the eligibility certificate for such persons and no separate permission is required from NMC, Pawar said.

Therefore, data of students going abroad to pursue MBBS is not maintained centrally.

“The NMC, for the betterment of Indian student pursuing medical studies abroad, vide circular dated 04.03.2022, has allowed foreign medical graduates with incomplete internship due to such compelling situation which is beyond their control such as war and COVID-19 pandemic etc to complete their remaining part of internship in India subject to the condition that such candidates must have cleared FMGE (screening test), which is mandatory for Indian students with foreign medical qualification to practise medicine in India,” she said.