FMGs long wait for Permanent Registrations to end soon
More than 500 Foreign Medical Graduates (FMGs) in Andhra Pradesh can finally heave a sigh of relief as their long wait for Permanent Registrations (PRs) seems to be coming to an end.
The FMGs in the State, who studied medical courses equivalent to MBBS outside India, have been waiting for more than a year to get their PRs, a license without which they cannot study further or set up clinics in the country, due to various reasons.
Clearing air on the issue, that has been pending since June, 2024, APMC Chairman Daggumati Sreehari Rao told The Hindu that the council, in its general body meeting on June 17, has decided to issue PRs to all those who have valid compensatory certificates and also clarified about the duration of the internships for the batches of FMGs affected by the pandemic.
It may be noted that the Andhra Pradesh Medical Council (APMC) had earlier insisted that the FMGs, who did their penultimate and ultimate years of their courses online, due to the pandemic, must undergo two years of internship irrespective of whether or not they had compensatory certificates.
Many FMGs decried the decision, as they said this was against the National Medical Commission (NMC)'s notification of June 19, 2024, that stated that those who wrote their final year exams offline and have compensatory certificates from their parent universities can undergo one year of internship.
NMC's notification
Now, the Chairman said the council is following the NMC's June 19 notification. 'Those who have done their complete course offline will have to do one year of internship and those who did their penultimate and ultimate years online but went back to write their final exams offline and have compensatory certificates will be allotted one year of internship,' Dr Sreehari Rao said.
He said the compensatory certificates should clearly mention the name, the dates of arrival in India and return to their parent university, the duration of the course completed in online mode.
He said that the APMC would write to the colleges in the State to relieve those FMGs, who despite having valid compensatory certificates are having to undergo a second year of internship. The process of issuance of PRs to the FMGs will start within a week and is likely to take another week to complete, he said.
An official notification regarding the revised guidelines for FMGs affected by the pandemic is yet to be released.
It may be noted here that all the FMGs affected belong to the batches during the pandemic and confusion arose due to multiple guidelines from the NMC regarding their duration of internships. At first, the APMC insisted that they undergo two years of internship to be eligible for a PR, then the graduates were told that their compensatory certificates were not clear.
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