Future of foreign medical graduates in Andhra hangs in balance as they are denied PR numbers

Medical graduates from Central Asia face uncertainty over Permanent Registration numbers in Andhra Pradesh, leading to protests and career jeopardy.

Around 70 medical graduates in the State, who completed their degrees abroad, mostly from Central Asian countries, have been put through untold misery for the past three months due to uncertainty over Permanent Registration (PR) numbers.

To get a PR number, after returning to India, the candidate has to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), get the pass certificate and other details and submit them to the State Medical Council. Once the counselling is held, the candidate has to do a one-year internship at an allotted college. It is only after the completion of the internship that they get their PR number, which is a must to practice or study further in the country.

However, the 70-odd graduates, who have completed their internships by May 2024, are yet to get their PRs from the A.P. Medical Council. “When we asked the officials in May, we were told we would get them in a month. More than two months have passed since then and we are still waiting for our PRs,” said Karthik (name changed), who studied at a recognised university in Kyrgyzstan from 2016 to 2022.

He added: “It is a six-year course there. While we were in our fifth year, the pandemic struck. We left for our home, and like everyone else in India, we took online classes for 14 months. While we did 8-9 months of theory classes of the fifth year online, we completed our 3-4 months of practical sessions after going back and receiving a certificate from our parent universities stating that we successfully compensated for the practical sessions.”

After returning, when Karthik cleared the FMGE, considered one of the toughest in the country, and completed the mandatory internship in May 2024, he, like other foreign graduates, received a rude shock when the National Medical Commission issued a notification on June 7 that said all foreign graduates have to compulsorily go through two-year internship since the compensation certificates were not enough.

“Even Indian students took their classes online during the pandemic. But they were not asked to undergo a two-year internship,” Karthik said.

After country-wide protests calling out the NMC for discriminating against foreign medical graduates, the controversial notification was withdrawn and the NMC issued another notification on June 17, clarifying that those who have “sufficiently compensated classes in physical onsite in-lieu of online classes” can undergo one-year internship.