Bhopal: Ukraine medical students oppose 2-year internship prog

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Ukraine medical students staged protest against the two-year internship programme for foreign medical graduates on Monday calling it discrimination of National Medical Commission (NMC) with Indian medical students who have to complete one-year internship. They protested at the office of the National Medical Council of India in Bhopal on Monday. The NMC has 2-year compulsory rotating internship (CRMI) for foreign medical graduates (FMGs).

The FMGs will be eligible to get registration only after completing the two-year CRMI. FMGs were unable to complete their training owing to COVID-19 and the war betweem Russia and Ukraine. As a relief to these students, the NMC had notified last year that final-year students who had returned to India and got degrees from their institutes on or before June 30, 2022, would be allowed to take the FMG exam.

On qualifying, they will be required to undergo a CRMI for two years instead of remaining one year. However, a petition challenging mandatory internship for FMGs is also pending in the Supreme Court. Dr Udit Soni, who led the protest in Bhopal said, ‘It is total discrimination by NMC. We are Indians also but we have to complete two years’ internship while for the rest, it is just one year.’