'As an FGME Candidate, I'm Not Happy With NMC's New Rule on Internships'

The NMC has asked students who have studied abroad to do an unpaid internship for 2 years after their MBBS.

Students who did their MBBS from abroad universities are being asked to intern for two years in India after returning. 

(Illustration: Chetan Bhakuni/The Quint)

Producer: Varsha
Video Editor: Pawan Kumar

I'm a medical student from Nantong Medical University, China. The National Medical Commission released an order on 21 October 2022 asking students, like me, who have studied abroad to do the internship for two years after our MBBS. Is it even fair?

We, students, are demanding a rollback of this order as we feel this is a complete injustice to us after the years of hard work we've put in.

The notice that the NMC issued stated that FMGEs (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination) who did online classes during COVID lockdowns, or due to the war situation (in Russia-Ukraine) need to undergo a one-year (an extra year) internship, and this implies to a vast number of students and it's affecting them mentally, as well as financially.

The students who are affected are the ones who passed the screening exams in one go and completed their one-year internship, too, and now they are being asked to intern for one more year. For what? Just because of a few months of online classes. These are the students from the 2015 batch.

Some students even got registered for jobs, but now their registration has been revoked. Why such injustice now?

Online classes were never a choice. Many of these FMG doctors also served covid patients when there was a lack of doctors during the pandemic. Back then, they worked 24/7.

'We Should Be Paid During Internships'

I don’t understand this. We FMGs are also serving India. We are also doctors in India.

Even after passing the screening exam, why is there a separate column for us to enrol and start the internship? Shouldn’t we be treated equally as Indian Medical Graduates and given equal chances? 

NMC has given orders to give stipends to all the students, but we don’t see that happening. These are some issues that need to be highlighted and implemented. We need justice and to get paid for the work we do.

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