NMC guidelines on foreign medical graduates binding on State Medical Council, says Health Minister Satya Kumar

File picture of Andhra Pradesh Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Andhra Pradesh Medical and Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav has asserted that the State government has to adhere to the guidelines issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) on Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs).

“The Registrar of the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council does not have any independent authority to modify the NMC guidelines issued from time to time,” Mr. Satya Kumar said on Tuesday (March 4, 2025).

“As per the NMC guidelines, the FMGs who studied online during their final year should have to do two years of internship (one year is clinical clerkship and one year is internship), and those who studied online during both penultimate and final years must complete three years of internship (two years will be clinical clerkship and one year internship), the Minister said in the Legislative Assembly.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) MLAs Pusapati Aditi Vijayalakshmi Gajapathi Raju, Nelavala Vijayasree, and Gondu Sankara Rao served a notice under Rule 74 calling the attention of the Minister on ‘Problems of foreign medical graduates’.

The Minister, making a statement, said some FMGs who returned to India due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russia-Ukraine War, and studied part of their MBBS course online, had requested the A.P. Medical Council to grant Permanent Registration after completing one year of internship as per the compensation certificates issued by the respective universities and also as per the NMC guidelines, he said.

After verification of the compensation letters submitted by the FMGs, it was found that they did not mention the period of online study and the period of compensation of online study with offline mode.

Hence, the A.P. Medical Council did not consider their applications for Permanent Registration, and they were directed to continue their Internship for a period of one more year to make-up for the loss of clinical training due to online study. But they ignored the orders of the A.P. Medical Council, the Minister said.

For FMGs who completed the entire course in the offline mode by staying abroad, Permanent Registrations were being granted after completion of one year of Internship in Andhra Pradesh.

A Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI) is a one-year programme that the FMGs must complete in India after obtaining provisional registration from the State Medical Council. “The A.P. Medical Council is continuously communicating with the NMC for necessary instructions regarding the issues raised by the FMGs,” he added.