How Will Ukraine-Return Students Complete Medical Course? Health Ministry, NMC Exploring Ways

The officials from NMC, Health Ministry, MEA and NITI Aayog will soon hold important meetings and the issue will be reviewed on humanitarian grounds and looked at sympathetically, the sources close to the matter said.

New Delhi: As thousands of medical students have returned from war-hit Ukraine and more are still on their way to India in evacuation flights, how will they complete their medical course in their home country? The sources told news agency PTI that the Union Health Ministry and the National Medical Commission are exploring the possibility of relaxing provisions of the NMC (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021 or finding alternatives to enable these medical students.

Sources further added that the officials from NMC, Health Ministry, MEA and NITI Aayog will soon hold important meetings and the issue will be reviewed on humanitarian grounds and looked at sympathetically.

According to the provisions of the National Medical Commission (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021 the entire course, training and internship or clerkship shall be done outside India in the same foreign medical institution throughout the course of study.

The provisions also state that no part of medical training and internship shall be done in India or in any country other than the one from where the primary medical qualification is obtained.

The sources further added that at present there are no norms and regulations under the National Medical Commission Regulations to accommodate medical students, who were studying abroad and had to return to India midway in between the academic session.

“However, keeping in view such extraordinary situations, the issue will be reviewed on humanitarian grounds and looked at sympathetically,” the source said.

“Discussions in the Health Ministry and the NMC have to begin to explore the possibility of relaxation in the provisions of the NMC (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021 or find alternatives to allow such students complete their courses in private medical colleges or enable their transfer to colleges abroad,” official sources said.

Ukraine has a six-year MBBS course and two-year internship programme and it is much affordable in comparison to that in private medical colleges in India.