The National Medical Commission (NMC), which compelled foreign medical graduates from Ukraine to complete a two-year internship, provoked protests from them on Monday in Bhopal. The students brought up the fact that medical students in India only have to complete a one-year internship. This problem emerged because some Indian medical students who were enrolled at foreign medical institutes in China and Ukraine were placed in unsafe circumstances as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. The Union Health Minister intervened to save these students, and he was looking into ways to allow them to finish their medical schooling in India.

Various organizations demanded that medical students from the Ukraine who had returned as refugees be given temporary housing at Indian institutions. Given the ongoing turmoil between Ukraine and Russia, a public interest litigation (PIL) was also launched in the Supreme Court asking that the Central Government incorporate these students into the Indian medical system. The medical students from Ukraine who had returned had also protested in a number of places.

The Supreme Court took notice of the circumstance and ordered the NMC to develop a policy within two months granting temporary registration to MBBS graduates who completed their medical education abroad but were unable to complete the practical training requirement in their parent institutes outside of India. The NMC decided to alter its policy for medical graduates who received their MBBS degree from a foreign medical school without participating in physical clinical training last year. 

The Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) was open to Indian students in their last year of MBBS, but the NMC also required foreign medical graduates who passed the exam to complete a two-year CRMI programme. The length of the internship will be doubled in order to make up for the lack of training in clinical and practical skills. As a result, FMGs can only register to practice in India once they have successfully completed the two-year CRMI programme.

The Free Press Journal said that Ukrainian medical students who have returned to Bhopal are dissatisfied with the difference in internship length between them and Indian medical students. On Monday, the students demonstrated in front of the NMC office in Bhopal, and the protest’s organizer, Dr. Udit Soni, criticized the NMC for treating them unfairly. “NMC is completely discriminating. We are also Indians, but unlike the others, we must finish a two-year internship, he said to FPJ. A petition opposing the requirement of an internship for foreign medical graduates is also pending before the bench of the Apex Court.

NMC’s new draft:

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has made it clear in most draft busts of the Bachelor’s degree Medical Education Regulations, 2023, that only relocation from a public medical college to a public institute and from a private medical college to a non-government college will be given permission.

 “No mutual exchange shall be permitted,” In the newly released draught regulations, the NMC, the top governing organisation for medical education, provided clarification.  

Unlike former policies, which did not prohibit pupil movement from public to private institutions and vice versa, this does. In actuality, in the past, individuals were only qualified for migration after passing the initial professional MBBS exam.

 In addition to this, the prior norms of the former Medical Council of India (MCI) had also limited transfer to 5% of the college’s approved enrollment for the year. Formerly, moving from one medical institution in the same region to another was prohibited for any reason.

However, the NMC has recently suggested alterations to the migration regulations and published a draught in this regard. Medical Dialogues had previously revealed that NMC had recently put the draught of these regulations in the public domain and had also solicited feedback in this respect from the general public and stakeholders.

 NMC has addressed a number of concerns relating to UG medical education, including the entrance, counselling, and migration processes associated with UG medical admission.

Regarding the subject of migration, NMC said that “No student designated to a medical institution, notwithstanding anything stated in these Regulations, shall seek migration to any other medical institution after the first academic year of admission.”

The draught has said that, although it is silent on the number of seats for which migration is permitted, “Migration of students from one medical college to another medical college shall be granted as per the guidelines of the UGMEB of the NMC, only in exceptional cases to the most deserving among the applicants for good and sufficient reasons and not on routine grounds. Migration shall be from a government medical college to a government medical college and from a non-government medical college to a non-government medical college only. “No mutual exchange shall be permitted.” 

The earlier regulations are in conflict with this. According to the MCI Rules on Graduate Medical Education, 1997, as amended in 2008, “Migration of students from one medical college to another medical college may be granted on any genuine ground, subject to the availability of a vacancy in the college where migration is sought and fulfilling the other requirements laid down in the Regulations. Migration would be restricted to 5% of the sanctioned intake of the college during the year. “No migration will be permitted on any ground from one medical college to another located within the same city.”

 “Migration of students from one college to another is permissible only if both the colleges are recognised by the Central Government under section 11(2) of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and further subject to the condition that it shall not result in an increase in the sanctioned intake capacity for the academic year concerned in respect of the receiving medical college,” the prior rules went on to mention.

While the new draught prohibits migration after the first year, the previous regulations, “The applicant candidate shall be eligible to apply for migration only after qualifying in the first professional MBBS examination. Migration during the clinical course of study shall not be allowed on any ground”

GRADUATE MEDICAL EDUCATION, 1997 (2008 Amendment)

•  Migration of students from one medical college to another medical college may be granted on any genuine ground subject to the availability of vacancy in the college where migration is sought and fulfilling the other requirements laid down in the Regulations. Migration would be restricted to 5% of the sanctioned intake of the college during the year. 
• No migration will be permitted on any ground from one medical college to another located within the same city.
•  Migration of students from one College to another is permissible only if both the colleges are recognised by the Central Government under section 11(2) of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and further subject to the condition that it shall not result in an increase in the sanctioned intake capacity for the academic year concerned in respect of the receiving medical college.
• The applicant candidate shall be eligible to apply for migration only after qualifying in the first professional MBBS examination. Migration during the clinical course of study shall not be allowed on any ground. 

 Draft Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023

•  Migration of students from one medical college to another medical college shall be granted as per the guidelines of UGMEB of NMC, only in exceptional cases to the most deserving among the applicants for good and sufficient reasons and not on routine grounds.
•  Migration shall be from a government medical college to a government medical college and from a non-government medical college to a non-government medical college only. No mutual exchange shall be permitted

No student designated to a medical institution, notwithstanding anything stated in these Regulations, shall seek migration to any other medical institution after the first academic year of admission.

 To know more about the NMC Draft 2023

Click the link below:

https://bodmaseducation.com/graduate-medical-education-regulations-draft/