Internship of foreign medical students comes to the fore again

Facilities for clinical training, lab should be made available, says MP

Issues related to the internship of foreign medical graduates in Kerala have again been raised against the backdrop of the dilemma of students who study in Chinese medical schools and are unable to attend offline classes due to the pandemic.

M.K. Raghavan, Kozhikode MP, in a letter to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandavya and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, said facilities for clinical training and lab should be made available for such students. He claimed that many foreign medical graduates were worried about the delay in getting registration for their internship in Kerala. Quoting the National Medical Commission (NMC) orders, the MP pointed out that those who had completed medical studies abroad and done internship there, need not repeat it here. Mr. Raghavan claimed that only some states were not ready to go by the NMC orders and sought a unified law on the issue.

Those who have graduated from foreign medical universities are supposed to clear Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) to register with the Travancore-Cochin Medical Councils (TCMC) in the state. They should then do a mandatory one-year internship with district or general hospitals later.