No Qualifying Test for Indian Medical Students With Foreign MBBS Degrees

Indian Medical Students with foreign MBBS degrees can now work in India without writing the eligibility test in India.

The proposal was sent by the Union Health Ministry to the Medical Council of India.

Medical students who study MBBS in foreign countries like China, Russia, Nepal, South East Asian and Eastern European Countries will have to clear the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination before practicing in India.

‘To overcome the shortage of doctors in the country, the Health Ministry has sent proposal to the Medical Council of India on canceling the qualifying test for Indian students with Foreign MBBS degrees.’

According to the data collected from the Medical Council of India since 2002, only 3610 students were able to pass the exam out of 29,968 students who have attended.

There is a shortage of six lakh doctors in the country and this move may help to overcome the shortage.

However. Dr. G. Srinivas, President of Telangana Junior Doctor's Association finds the new measure to be unfair and has also said that, "The medical education and bedside experience of foreign doctors are minimal. The teaching standards are different and they are not on par with Indian standards. On one side the government wants us to write exams after passing our MBBS and on the other side they want to recruit foreign doctors without exams, which is not fair. We are going to strongly protest against it."

Students from India prefer to study medicine abroad because of the cost and division of seats in the private medical colleges.

Dr Ravinder Reddy, Telangana Medical Council Chairman, said "As of today, writing a medical exam for the foreign medical graduate is as per the MCI act and it is being followed."

One of the senior doctor said, "The problem is that none of the Indian doctors who are trained in India or abroad want to practise in rural areas. Hence, there will be a growing competition in urban and semi-urban areas only. A foreign doctor will come with a different set of expertise. Also, the name that he is foreign-returned will attract a lot of patients and this is what many are scared about."

Most of the doctors in the country who have got their degrees abroad were rejected to practice in India since they were not able to qualify the exam.



Source: Medindia