International medical students qualified for four times as many internship slots: DMC

The dearth of internship options available at the city’s medical institutions for foreign medical graduates has been brought to the attention of the Delhi Medical Council. The council said that it is unable to accept all of the qualified applicants from the city, citing a fourfold increase in the number of seats available in the institutions.

“While over a thousand students are eager to begin their internships in Delhi, we have only extended an invitation to apply to those who are Delhi residents, or 230 people in total. Unfortunately, the number of spots available for internship training is presently limited at 60. We will not be able to provide internships, even to FMGs from Delhi, due to the discrepancy between the number of seats and the number of applications received, said Dr. Girish Tyagi, Secretary, DMC.

In order to preserve their academic year, the council has pleaded with the Center to let such FMGs to complete internships in non-teaching hospitals like Gangaram.

at a letter to the National Medical Commission, the council said, “We ask that they be allowed to undergo internship training in non-teaching institutes so that their academic interests are not jeopardized to accommodate the large number of applicants for internship.” According to Tyagi, the Center has to increase the number of FMG seats at medical institutions in order to find a long-term solution.

State-specific FMGs are preferred by all state medical councils. Despite receiving more than a thousand applications, we solely gave Delhi applicants consideration—not even those from Noida and Gurgaon. Even so, we were unable to serve them all. He went on, “They’ll have to wait for the next exam or look for internships in other states.”