The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is all set to introduce an exit test for all medical graduates to be eligible to practice medicine in the country. This is in keeping with the suggestions made by a committee led by NITI Aayog chairman Arvind Panagariya to overhaul medical education.
The ministry has prepared the draft Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to introduce Exit Examination for MBBS level; combined counselling for undergraduate and post graduate levels; reserving up to 50% of seats in PG courses for “medical officers”, and sought people’s feedback on the matter. The last date for giving feedback was on Friday.
As per the draft Bill, there will be one uniform National Exit Test (NEXT) for all medical educational institutions at the undergraduate level. It will be conducted in English and will substitute the uniform entrance examination conducted for the post-graduate level. This means that NEXT will serve two purposes—giving MBBS graduates the licence to practice medicine; and give admission to them for their PG courses. The bill also proposes to have 50% seats reserved in PG courses for students who have served in remote areas for at least three years.
The government move has been welcomed by the medical fraternity. Speaking to The Sunday Guardian, Indian Medical Association (IMA) national president K.K. Aggarwal went one step ahead, suggesting that all final year medical students should be asked to sit for the uniform exit test, like board examinations, which will make them graduates (MBBS), as well as give them the licence to practice.
“We also suggest that those who do not want to pursue their post-graduation should not be asked to sit for the exit test, which will also be like a window to admission to such courses. However, we are opposed to the proposal of giving any exemption to foreign medical students of Indian origin,” said Dr Aggarwal.
The move is likely to pave the way for over 20,000 Indians who have studied medicine in foreign countries, but have not been able to get registered by the Medical Council of India for practising in India. There is exemption to students studying in certain countries: a majority of them have to pass the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) test, which foreign doctors allege is not transparent.
“We are happy that the government is coming out with such an examination. This will end discrimination between foreign medical graduates of Indian origin and Indian medical graduates. The FMGE is kept deliberately tough so that the pass percentage would be very low. This is just to discourage others who want to pursue MBBS abroad. Now with every Indian medical graduate sitting for the same examination, this criticism will no longer hold,” said Raghu Ram Nayak, executive member of the All India Foreign Medical Graduates Association.
According to Nayak, if advocates can sit for the All India Bar Council Examination, introduced in 2010, to be eligible to be registered in the council to practice law, doctors should not oppose such a good move, which will lead to standardisation of the medical profession.
The Ministry’s move come in the wake of recommendations by a committee constituted by NITI Aayog vice chairperson Arvind Panagariya last year, to examine all aspects of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, and suggest reforms needed to improved outcomes in medical education. It is to be noted that the country faces an acute shortage of doctors. As per Medical Council of India (MCI) records, there are 9.29 lakh doctors in the Indian Medical Register until March 2014.