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Union health ministry has sent a new proposal to Medical Council of India (MCI) to allow Indian citizens holding foreign medical degrees to get registered with MCI without undergoing the screening test.
The main aim of this proposal by the government is to overcome the shortage of doctors in the country. However, certain doctor’s associations in the country are opposing to this move as they feel that students with foreign degrees may not be well trained or equally qualified on par with Indian doctors.
At present, India is facing severe shortage of qualified doctors. About 6 lakh doctors are still required to meet the healthcare needs of the country. The existing medical colleges in India are not adequate to generate the required human resources in the medical stream.
Earlier in 2002, to test the ability of Indian students with foreign medical degrees, National Board of Examinations (NBE) in India introduced Foreign Medical Graduates Examination (FMGE) also called as Medical Council of India Screening Test to get resisted with MCI for practicing medicine in India. This test is one of the mandatory requirements for an Indian citizen who has a medical degree from a college outside India to practice medicine in the country.
The main reason for conducting this test is because the medical courses offered in some of the foreign universities of China, Russia, Nepal, South East Asia and Eastern European countries is not on par with the Indian standards. According to the data from Medical council of India, out of 29,968 students with foreign MBBS degrees who took the MCI screening tests only 3,600 have passed. This shows that only 10-12 per cent of these graduates are qualified, while the remaining are lacking the basic medical knowledge.
“Medical education and experience of foreign medical degree holders are minimal. The teaching standards are different and they are not on part with Indian standards. “On one side the government wants us to write exams after passing our MBBS and on the other hand they want to recruit foreign doctors without exams, I think this is not fair on the part of the government. We will strongly protest this move by the government,” informed Dr. G. Srinivas, president of Telangana Junior Doctors Association.
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