NMC: NExT Exam Must for Foreign Medical Graduates to Intern in India

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Foreign medical graduates (FMGs) must need to pass NExT to meet the requirements outlined in the Foreign Medical Graduates Regulations, 2021.

New Delhi: Foreign medical graduates (FMGs) must pass the National Exit Test (NExT) in addition to meeting the requirements outlined in the Foreign Medical Graduates Regulations, 2021, in order to be provisionally registered for an internship with the relevant state medical council. This is the new FMG policy that was announced by the National Medical Commission last month.

The qualifying test for each institution must be passed in order for students attending Indian medical colleges to be registered. The Foreign Medical Graduates Exam (FMGE) is effectively replaced by the NExT. Graduates of the four and a half-year MBBS programme are required to do a year-long internship in specific hospitals.

FMG's completed internship in India was given a "one-time relaxation" by NMC last month. It provides a list of approved non-teaching hospitals for the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship (CRMI), which is exclusively available to FMGs and is valid for one year (up to May 2024).

According to the "Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023" published by NMC, medical students from India and abroad must pass the proposed NExT exam in order to be registered in the National Medical Register (NMR) and receive a license to practice.

NExT exam

NExT will serve as a common MBBS qualifying exam for final-year students, a licensing exam for the practicing of modern medicine, a license exam for admission to merit-based postgraduate programmes and a screening exam for foreign medical graduates who want to work in India.

According to government sources, NExt will take place in 2019 and is expected to be organised by the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, Press Trust of India reported on Thursday.

The updated rules were published on June 8, 2023, on the NMC website after being announced in The Gazette of India on May 10, 2023. The new laws cover applications for licenses to practice medicine, registration in the national medical registry, and other requirements for medical licenses.

NMC Regulations: Medical license

Students must pay a processing fee to the NMC for the development of Unique Identification (UID) numbers in order to register with the NMR and practice in India. The Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) will maintain the register, and the NRM will be accessible to the public on the NMC website.

After passing the MBBS exam, students must apply online to the EMRB and select any state. The license will be granted by the relevant medical council. The NMR and the state medical register will be updated after the state medical council approves the application.

Additional medical qualifications

A registered medical practitioner must submit an application to the relevant state medical council after earning additional medical credentials in order to have the entry against their name updated with the new credentials. A new registration certificate that was issued after review will be displayed in the update.

According to the NMC, "Anywhere in India, with all of its benefits, a licensed practitioner with registered additional credentials may practice in the field of specialization or superspecialization commensurate with the knowledge and skill attained, as applicable to the additional qualification."

License Validity

The five-year license is required to practice medicine. A maximum of three months after the current license expires is allowed for the submission of the renewal application.

"If no application is submitted within three months of the license's expiration, the medical practitioner's entry in the state registry will be changed to "inactive," and they will no longer be allowed to practice medicine. Any inactive designation imposed on a medical professional in the state register will automatically be reflected in the NMR,” according to the NMC.

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