Health Minister Ma. Subramanian on Friday said the State government had decided to waive the ₹2 lakh to be paid by foreign medical graduates towards internship in medical colleges in Tamil Nadu. They will now have to pay only ₹30,000 to the Tamil Nadu Dr. MGR Medical University for the internship.

The Minister said that usually, foreign medical graduates had to pay ₹3.20 lakh to the university and ₹2 lakh to the Health Department for the Compulsory Rotating Medical Internship.

Many foreign medical graduates made representations that they had studied medicine abroad in the midst of difficulties, and found it hard to pay the fee for the internship. “They were repeatedly demanding that the fees be reduced. Based on their request, we have reduced the fee to be paid to the university from ₹3.20 lakh to ₹30,000, and have decided to waive the ₹2 lakh to be paid to the Health Department,” he told reporters in Chennai.

NMC nod

Following a representation from Tamil Nadu, the National Medical Commission (NMC) had given its nod to admit foreign medical graduates, who were waiting to take up internships, to the 11 new government medical colleges in the State, the Minister said.

“We have already made a demand to NMC to increase the intake of foreign medical graduates for internship from 7.5% to 20%, as many of them have been waiting for a long time. We made another demand to permit us to post them to the 11 new government medical colleges as house surgeons,” he said.

The Union government had given its nod to post the foreign medical graduates to the 11 new medical colleges, he said, adding, “A total of 521 foreign medical graduates have applied and are waiting for the internship. These students would be posted to the 11 new medical colleges immediately. The remaining students who are waiting for internships could apply immediately to the Directorate of Medical Education (DME).”

Hassles in the application process had been done away with. Earlier, students had to visit the Secretariat, the medical college and the university, he said, adding, “The process has been simplified. The students could now approach the DME.”

With a large number of people yet to take the precautionary dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Minister said steps were being taken to expedite the administration of the booster dose.

He launched a camp to administer booster doses to over 6,400 staff of the Secretariat. A similar camp was set up at Presidency College for students aged 18 and above. “Camps to administer booster doses will be set up in all colleges for students aged 18 and above, through the Greater Chennai Corporation,” he said.

A total of 3,45,61,932 people were eligible for the precautionary dose in the State. Of them, only 40,02,853 had received the dose, he said.

He said daily camps would be conducted in places such as the Secretariat and colleges, while mega vaccination camps would be conducted every alternate week – the next one is scheduled to be held on August 7. The State had nearly 27.05 lakh doses of vaccines.