MBBS graduates from foreign colleges likely need double internships in India

Students pursuing MBBS abroad will now be required to do double internships to practice medicine in India, as per the new norms about to be released.

For the scores of students who are studying MBBS (Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery) abroad, now securing the registration to practice medicine in India can get tougher as it is expected that as per the new rules which are about to be released such MBBS graduates could need double internships - one from the country where they completed their MBBS and another one in India.

The new guidelines are expected to first go for public feedback this week before the final notification.

Until now, foreign medical graduates, except the ones who got their MBBS degrees in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia, UK and US, are required to clear the FMGE (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination) and do a mandatory one-year internship from a recognised medical college in India before getting the registration. The passing percentage of foreign MBBS graduates in FMGE is just 10-20% every year.

Nearly 10,000-12,000 students from India go to other countries for pursuing an MBBS course every year. Most of these MBBS graduates return to India without doing internships abroad. Now, the process of issuing licenses to such graduates are being made more stringent as confirmed by Aruna V Vanikar, president of the undergraduate medical education board at NMC (National Medical Commission).

“As of now, there are instances of medical graduates with just 3-3.5 years from many sub-standard colleges abroad and we need to put a stop to such cases,” said Vanikar, as quoted by The New Indian Express.

Once the National Exit Test (NEXT) gets implemented from 2023, all local MBBS graduates will do the internship in the colleges they graduated and foreign students successful in the NEXT step 1 exam will have to do internships from designated sites and after completing these respective internships again all the MBBS graduates need to appear for the NEXT step 2 exam to get the license, hence it will be a two-step process to get a license for all MBBS graduates.

Read more:

• Foreign medical graduates to approach Bombay High Court against FMGE
• NeXT exam for MBBS students to be held from 2023