NMC Relaxes Rules & Permits International Medical Graduates to Intern in Non-Teaching Positions

Foreign medical graduates who have passed their screening test are now permitted to do an internship at non-teaching hospitals under the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) year-long relaxation of standards. Internships will be permitted at 679 selected hospitals across the states through May of the following year. The relaxation was made public because some students, particularly those who finished their study in China and Ukraine last year, were required to undergo two years of internships to make up for the practical learning that the pandemic and the conflict hindered.

In a clarification released on Wednesday, the National Medical Commission stated that recognised non-teaching hospitals will be permitted to offer internships to foreign medical graduates up to May 2024. “This relaxation is only offered as a temporary remedy. The circular stated that the concerned state medical councils would also be used to assign FMGs to these non-teaching hospitals. 

A number of issues affecting the distribution of internships to thousands of foreign medical graduates have been clarified by the circular. The two-year internship will only be available to applicants who returned to India during their final year of study and completed their studies online due to the Covid-19 pandemic or the Russia-Ukraine war, according to the “clarification” released by the National Medical Commission on Wednesday.

According to the clarification, students who must complete a two-year internship might opt to complete their second year at a different college or state. The NMC further stated that the implementation of a stipend will be at the “discretion of the concerned state authorities under which the medical college/institute is located,” since other institutes have also refused to fill seats due to a lack of funding to pay the foreign graduates.