Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has relaxed its norms for a year, allowing foreign medical graduates (FMGs) who have passed their screening test to intern at non-teaching hospitals.
Internships at 679 designated hospitals across the states will be allowed till May next year.
The relaxation was announced in view of some students – especially those who completed their training from China and Ukraine last year – having to do two-year internship to fill gaps in their practical learning that was hampered due to the pandemic and the war, media reports said on May 11.
The NMC, however, clarified that recognised non-teaching hospitals will be allowed to provide internship to foreign medical graduates up to May 2024.
“This relaxation is granted only as one-time measure. The allotment of FMGs in these non-teaching hospitals shall also be done through concerned state medical councils,” said the circular.
The circular has issued clarifications for several things plaguing the allotment of internships to thousands of foreign medical graduates.
The Commission stated that the two-year internship will be applicable only to candidates who came back to India during their final year and completed their education online because of the Covid-19 pandemic or the Russia-Ukraine war.
Students who require to do the two-year internship can choose to do their second year of internship from a different college or state, it said.
