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Foreign Educated Medical Students Approach Supreme Court For Aid To Join Covid-19 Care Workforce
- 5/19/2021 4:39:13 PM
- 0 Comments
- Manikanth
- BMU
The Association of MD Physicians, All India Foreign Medical
Graduates and Russian Medical Graduates Associations have approached the
Supreme Court seeking directions to states to allow all foreign medical
graduates (FMGs) to join the Covid-19 healthcare workforce with facilities at
par with MBBS graduates.
President of Association of MD Physicians, Dr Rajesh Rajan,
said, though many states, including Karnataka, Gujarat, have started the
process of appointing FMGs to their state Covid teams, many are still
reluctant. Over 50,000 such medicos are waiting for the government nod, he
said.
“Several National Medical Council (NMC) members have already
written to its chairman to support the movement to stabilise and support our
burnt-out Covid warriors,” he said, adding that the Indian Medical Association
(IMA) has officially released a press note stating the importance of FMG
doctors during this crisis. He told TOI that if FMG doctors are ready to work
as interns without any stipend for one year, the government should immediately
take their services after registering them.
“We all know about the shortage of doctors across the
country. Almost every day we are losing doctors, including specialists. The
existing teams are exhausted due to continuous work for the past one year,” Dr
Rajan said, adding that the third wave will be more disastrous and medicos are
needed to tackle it. There is need to plan ahead, he added.
We have readymade doctors then why is the government not
allowing them to work,” he questioned, adding that the government has no issues
if veterinary doctors are working with Covid teams but they are not ready to
absorb FMGs.
The petitioners stated that FMGs are doctors who have
obtained their primary medical degrees equivalent to MBBS from outside India.
The petition seeks a one-time exemption for their members and for all other
such doctors eligible to take the foreign medical graduate exam in order to
augment the health infrastructure of the country. Read more
Source: Times of India
