National Medical Commission (NMC): Foreign medical graduates can intern in any State

Source: The post is based on the article “Foreign medical graduates can intern in any State” published in The Hindu on 11th May 2023

What is the News?

The National Medical Commission(NMC) has allowed foreign medical graduates who have passed their screening test to intern at non-teaching hospitals.

This has been announced as a one-time measure to help students who are in the last year of their studies and had returned to India due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and so on.

The State Medical Councils shall not deny allotment of medical colleges for internships to foreign medical graduates(FMG) on the basis of their domicile, and they can complete their internship from a medical college in any State or Union Territory if they are otherwise eligible. 

What is the National Medical Commission (NMC)?

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has been constituted by an act of Parliament known as the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 which came into force in 2020.

The mandate of the commission is to: 

1) improve access to quality and affordable medical education;

2) ensure the availability of adequate and high-quality medical professionals in all parts of the country; 

3) promote equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and makes services of medical professionals accessible to all the citizens; 

4) encourages medical professionals to adopt the latest medical research in their work and to contribute to research; 

5) objectively assess medical institutions periodically in a transparent manner; (vi) maintain a medical register for India; 

6) enforce high ethical standards in all aspects of medical services; and 

7) have an effective grievance redressal mechanism.