The Government of Assam has taken significant steps to streamline the Medical education curriculum, infrastructure, teaching methodologies, clinical exposure, and evaluation processes across various domains, including pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, paramedicine, and other allied health sciences, in a progressive move to improve the quality of medical education in the state of Assam. This proactive step strives to create excellence and uniformity in medical and healthcare education across the state, ensuring that students get the finest instruction and preparation to meet future healthcare demands.

Medical Association with Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences (SSUHS)

All institutions offering Pharmacy, Nursing, Physiotherapy, Paramedicine, and other Allied Health Sciences programmes in Assam, including those under other State and Private Universities, will be required to apply for affiliation with Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences (SSUHS) in order to achieve the objective of standardizing healthcare education. The institutions that are currently affiliated with other universities in Assam and offering these programmes are instructed to submit an application to move their affiliation to SSUHS. The SSUHS will evaluate the institutes and, after a careful review procedure, grant affiliation beginning with the academic year 2023–2024.

Centralised Admission Test for Medical 

The admission process for programmes in pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, paramedicine, and other allied health sciences shall only be done through the centralized Entrance Examination organized by SSUHS beginning with the academic session 2023–24 in order to assure fair and merit-based admissions. The most worthy applicants for admission will be chosen using the results of this standardized exam as a basis for assessing the ability and knowledge of prospective students.

Putting a stop to Unrecognised Medical Institutions

The Government of Assam has discovered that there are private institutions operating in the medical healthcare education field without sufficient regulatory license or recognition, which results in the issuance of fake degrees and diplomas. Deputy Commissioners have been given the authority to take severe action against such institutions in order to protect the interests of students and uphold the integrity of healthcare education. They will be obliged to stop these unlicensed institutions’ operations and make sure they receive the proper regulatory approval from the government and affiliation with SSUHS.

The Streamlined Approach’s Advantages

Students, organizations, and the medical and healthcare industry as a whole all gain from Assam’s coordinated approach to healthcare education in a number of significant ways. Some major benefits include:

1. Standardized Medical Education

Institutions offering programmes in pharmacy, nursing, physiotherapy, paramedicine, and other allied health sciences will adhere to a standardized curriculum thanks to the requirement of affiliation with SSUHS. This guarantees that students receive a consistent, thorough education that adheres to national and international standards and gives them the skills and information they need to succeed in their particular industries.

2. Enhanced Academic Standards for Medical Education

The affiliation with SSUHS will impose strict criteria for instruction on educational institutions. This measure encourages superior teaching practices and fosters a favorable learning environment for pupils. The importance placed on high-quality instruction improves students’ comprehension, critical-thinking skills, and capacity for knowledge application, ultimately creating competent healthcare professionals.

3. Increased Clinical Exposure to Medical and Healthcare Students

Practical training and exposure to real-world healthcare settings are two essential components of healthcare education. Institutions will be better able to give students increased clinical exposure thanks to the simplified approach. This offers chances for practical experience, internships, and clinical rotations that help students gain crucial clinical abilities, empathy, and adaptability in a variety of healthcare settings.

4. Strict Evaluation Procedure

SSUHS will put in place a thorough evaluation procedure that guarantees accurate and thorough assessments of students’ performance. This strategy includes a variety of evaluation techniques, including written tests, practical evaluations, research projects, and presentations. SSUHS ensures that students’ abilities are appropriately assessed and acknowledged by upholding rigorous evaluation standards, promoting an academic excellence culture.

A commendable step towards raising the standards of medical and healthcare education is the Assam government’s initiative to integrate medical and healthcare education across the state by affiliating with Srimanta Sankaradeva University of Health Sciences (SSUHS) and implementing a centralized entrance exam. Assam is well-positioned to generate a new generation of highly qualified and competent healthcare workers by establishing a standardized curriculum, encouraging great teaching standards, offering increased clinical exposure, and putting in place a strict evaluation procedure. Students will gain from this change in healthcare education, but it will also help Assam’s healthcare system as a whole, leading to better healthcare for the state’s residents.

The right college is crucial in determining a student’s future in the field of medical education. Unfortunately, recent events have left the future unknown for a number of MBBS graduates from three renowned medical institutes offering MBBS in Uttar Pradesh, India. Concerns have been expressed by students who completed their MBBS degrees at these institutions, which include the Government Allopathic Medical College in Banda, Government Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital in Azamgarh, and Government Medical College in Saharanpur.

Any educational institution’s legitimacy and authenticity, particularly in the field of medicine, are built on recognition. The inability of the aspiring doctors to register with the State Medical Faculty (SMF), as required by the national medical commission (NMC), as a result of these colleges’ lack of recognition, has put them in a difficult situation. Their professional development is hampered without this registration, leaving them with just provisional registration.

The director-general of medical education (DGME), Kinjal Singh, addressed this urgent situation and pledged to swiftly find a solution. The NMC is receiving representations, and a committee has been established to examine the difficulties preventing recognition. The NMC sent a letter to the DGME office outlining the colleges that are still awaiting recognition, including Rajkiya Medical College in Jalaun, whose principal asserts that the recognition issue has been handled.

The effects of this circumstance go beyond the current class of students who earned their MBBS degrees in 2022. The 2018 MBBS batch, which is presently studying for their examinations and is expected to graduate in 2023, is equally worried about the future. The NMC letter emphasizes that the commission and the central government have the right to take the necessary actions in accordance with the law if shortcomings at the aforementioned colleges continue despite careful inspection.

The Azamgarh Medical College’s principal, Dr. RK Sharma, acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and gave the assurance that steps were being taken to swiftly address the registration problems. However, more research is necessary to fully understand the significance of registration in this situation.

The Importance of Registration for Medical Graduates: An Understanding

Before MBBS and BDS graduates can start their professional careers or seek higher education, registration with the SMF is crucial. Only those who have graduated from accredited medical and dentistry schools are eligible for this registration. It acts as a doorway for them to start working in Uttar Pradesh, giving them the legitimacy to diagnose patients and recommend effective therapies. Similar to that, they must register according to state law before practicing medicine outside of their own state’s borders. Practicing without registration could result in accusations of unauthorized practice, which could prompt action by the chief medical officer of the relevant district. Failure to get registration could have legal repercussions.

Students devote years of effort, devotion, and money to the pursuit of a lucrative medical career. These three medical colleges’ lack of recognition has jeopardized their hopes and objectives. The government must act quickly to correct the issues so that the impacted students can be properly recognised, registered, and given the chance to support the healthcare system.

As a result,

The difficulties encountered by the medical students who completed their MBBS degrees at the Government Allopathic Medical College in Banda, the Government Medical College and Super Speciality Hospital in Azamgarh, and the Government Medical College in Saharanpur demonstrate the necessity of a thorough and effective recognition procedure within the medical education system. The national government, the NMC, and the educational authorities must work together to quickly adopt decisions and take action that puts the future and welfare of these aspirant doctors first.

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We appreciate it that you’re here to read our in-depth guide to the internship for foreign medical graduates (FMG) in India. We will give you detailed information on the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) most recent clarification of the Compulsory Rotatory Medical Internship (CRMI) in this article. To ensure a seamless entry into the Indian healthcare system as an aspirant FMG, it is essential to comprehend these requirements.

Knowing about the FMG Internship

What is FMG? 

Individuals who received their medical degrees from universities outside of India are known as Foreign Medical Graduates, or FMGs. These people want to work in medicine in India and improve the healthcare system there.

The Importance of CRMI A medical graduate’s journey to becoming a licenced practitioner in India requires them to complete a mandatory rotating medical internship (CRMI). It is a one-year internship programme designed to give FMGs real-world experience in a variety of medical specialties while assisting them in gaining important skills and abilities.

CRMI Clarification from NMC

The qualifications for FMGs pursuing CRMI in India were recently clarified by the National Medical Commission (NMC). The goal of this explanation is to establish clear rules and clear up any past uncertainty that FMGs may have had. Let’s examine the main ideas presented in the NMC’s explanation.

Eligibility requirements

Specific qualifying requirements have been established by the NMC for FMGs wishing to participate in the CRMI programme. These standards consist of:

• Degree Accreditation: FMGs must possess a medical degree that is listed in the World Directory of Medical Schools (WDOMS) or another authoritative international directory.
• The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE), commonly known as the MCI/NMC Screening Test, is a requirement for FMGs. The medical expertise and knowledge of FMGs are evaluated by this exam.
• Medical Council Registration: In order to pursue their CRMI, FMGs must first get temporary registration from the relevant State Medical Council (SMC).

The Clarification’s Goal

The NMC has carefully thought through the concerns surrounding the internship for FMGs in cooperation with the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare. These clarifications are being made in order to ensure transparency and respond to issues that stakeholders and State Medical Councils have raised. The NMC attempts to give full information and promote understanding among the numerous parties involved by combining the rules and directions.

Important Provisions for FMGs in the CRMI Regulations of 2021

Foreign medical graduates must do at least a twelve-month supervised internship in India. In compliance with the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate (FMGL) Regulations 2021, they must submit applications to the Commission for internships. For FMGs to graduate from their internships, their internships must be finished within two years of passing the final MBBS, FMGE, or NEXT Step-1 test.

FMGs will be assigned to medical schools or other organisations that are authorised to offer Compulsory Rotating Medical Internships (CRMI) to Indian Medical Graduates in order to streamline the internship procedure. The corresponding State Medical Councils will distribute the colleges. The corresponding State Medical Councils will distribute the colleges. The colleges, linked hospitals, and Community Health Centres must be approved by the Commission to run the CRMI programme before the counselling or seat allocation procedure can begin.

• Online Study Validation by Commission

The Commission allowed exceptions during the Covid-19 outbreak, despite the fact that it has never authorized or verified medical credentials (both theoretical and practical) only through online mode. In accordance with the existing curriculum, medical colleges and institutions in India are permitted to offer online courses that are reinforced with practical and clinical training. The NMC standards do not recognise online study for medical degrees, including its theoretical and practical components.

• Application of NMC Public Notice on FMGs from July 28, 2022

On July 28, 2022, the NMC released a public notice that clarified the rules that apply to foreign medical graduates (FMGs). The notice states that the two-year internship clause only applies to FMGs who were in their last year of medical qualifying studies when they were forced to return to India because of events like COVID-19 or the Russia-Ukraine War. These FMGs must pass the FMG Examination after successfully finishing their medical qualification and must then do a Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) for two years, with a schedule of 12 months to be repeated. A hospital affiliated with a medical college is where this internship must be finished.

• Domicile Requirement by FMGs for Internships

State Medical Councils are not allowed to refuse FMGs access to medical universities for internships based only on where they reside. If they meet the requirements, FMGs are free to do their internships in any medical college located in a State or Union Territory. The allocation procedure shouldn’t take the domicile requirement into account.

• Partially completed internship by FMGs

An FMG is free to continue the second year of their internship in another medical college, a State, or a Union Territory if they have previously finished the first year of their internship in one medical college in India. Due to this flexibility, FMGs can select from a variety of seats to host internships.

• Stipends are paid to FMGs.

By way of a circular dated 19.05.2022, the NMC asked all Directorates of Medical Education and State Medical Councils to make sure that no FMG interns, whether Indian or foreign, are charged an internship fee by medical colleges or institutions. It was emphasized that FMGs in the relevant States/Union Territories should receive stipends and other benefits on par with Indian Medical Graduates.

• Putting Stipend Guidelines into Practise

Although the NMC has said that the appropriate authority applicable to the institution/university or State should determine the stipend level for FMG interns, the execution of these rules is at the sole discretion of the relevant State authorities. The State authorities are responsible for resolving this issue in circumstances when there is no budgetary provision in the allocation of annual budgets for stipend payment to FMGs.

• Foreign medical graduates are granted a one-time relaxation

The NMC has approved a one-time waiver due to the lack of internship seats for FMGs in several States and Union Territories as a result of the implementation of the two-year internship requirement. The list of Recognised Non-Teaching Hospitals for Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship published by the former Medical Council of India is validated by this relaxation for a period of one year beginning on the date of the circular. With this approach, FMGs will have the chance to finish their internships. However, only through the relevant State Medical Councils can FMGs be allocated to these non-teaching hospitals.

• Validation of Recognised Hospitals that Are Not Teaching

The NMC has approved the recognition of recognised non-teaching hospitals for mandatory rotating medical internships as a temporary measure. The former Medical Council of India published a list of these hospitals, and it is currently valid for a year. Subject to the allocation procedure overseen by the State Medical Councils, this validation permits FMGs to pursue their internships in these facilities.

• FMGs are distributed to non-teaching hospitals.

The relevant State Medical Councils manage the procedure of allocating FMGs to non-teaching hospitals for their internships. These councils are essential in ensuring transparent and fair allocation based on seat availability and FMG merit. The goal is to give FMGs a variety of interesting internship opportunities in various healthcare settings.

• Guidelines for State Medical Councils and Medical Education Directorates

The National Medical Commission’s (NMC) directives and directions for FMG internships are crucially carried out by the State Medical Councils and Directorates of Medical Education. They are in charge of organising and making it easier for FMGs to receive medical colleges, including non-teaching hospitals. The recommendations place a strong emphasis on following the eligibility requirements, abstaining from discrimination based on residence, and making sure that FMGs get stipends and other facilities in accordance with the NMC’s instructions.

Important clarifications and rules regulating the conduct of internships for Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) in India have been published by the National Medical Commission. These rules cover a wide range of topics, including the applicability of the NMC’s public notice, domicile requirements, part-time internship completion, stipend payment and implementation, a one-time relaxation for FMGs, recognition of non-teaching hospitals, and the function of State Medical Councils and Directorates of Medical Education.

To maintain a seamless and open internship procedure for FMGs, it is crucial that all parties involved—including State Medical Councils—adhere to these rules. By doing this, we can make it easier for FMGs to become a part of the Indian healthcare system, improve their clinical expertise, and raise the standard of healthcare and medical education in the nation as a whole.