No Indian test for students with foreign MBBS degrees

Hyderabad: Indian medical students who are getting their MBBS degrees from foreign universities will now have an opportunity to work in India without giving their exams here according to a proposal sent by the Union health ministry to the Medical Council of India.

The government says that this is to overcome the shortage of six lakh doctors in the country. Doctors who graduate from China, Russia, Nepal, South East Asian and Eastern European countries have to write the Foreign Medical Graduates Examination, and if they pass they can register and practise in India.

Data from the Medical Council of India shows that since 2002, 29,968 students have appeared for the foreign medical examination and only 3,610 have passed.
Dr G. Srinivas, president of Telangana Junior Doctors’ Association thinks the new measure is unfair.

“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,” he said.

It’s the ridiculous division of seats in private medical colleges that forces many students to study abroad. A junior doctor on condition of anonymity explained, “In private medical colleges, 50 per cent of seats are reserved for the government, 20 per cent is in the management quota and the remaining are paid seats which are very expensive. These seats cost allegedly Rs 1.5 core. That is one of the major reasons that many students opt for seats outside India.”

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

But when there is a shortage of doctors, why are trained doctors not being allowed to practise in India? Why must people in rural areas go to RMPs?

A senior doctor on condition of anonymity explained, “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.”

At present, several Indian doctors who got their degrees abroad and were rejected in India are practising in the countries they passed out from. According to sources in the Medical Council of India, many of them have got employment in the Middle East and South East Asian countries where the patient load is manageable.