I have a Question about residency in India

[Mr.MG]

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I am planning on going to St. George's Medical School in Grenada or Ross in Dominica. They are US accredited schools in the Caribbean. If I got my MD from there, would I be able to do my residency in India?

 

[docontherocks32]

I am planning on going to St. George's Medical School in Grenada or Ross in Dominica. They are US accredited schools in the Caribbean. If I got my MD from there, would I be able to do my residency in India?

India follows the Commonwealth setup of medical education, with medical school being a 4.5+ 1 year course. The last year is internship where you rotate in various departments as an intern. Unlike the US, the intern in India is not a PGY 1, but has a similar role to play. After clearing all exams and finishing your internship you get the MBBS degree, and a licence to practice as a general practitioner.

The degrees from SGU or Ross are not recognized in India per se. You will have to clear a written exam by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and then work as an intern in a tertiary care center for a year to get a licence in India. Most of the people giving the MCI exam are med school pass outs of China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc (essentially those who couldn't get into medical schools in India). Either the quality of people taking the exam is poor or the level of exam is too high, but the passing rate is about 1 in 3. You can however reappear in the exam and some people spend years clearing it (while some clear it in the first attempt as well). Once you get an Indian licence, you can appear for a residency in India (which was your question in the first place)

I was a clinical tutor in SGU, and from my experience there and during rotations in the US, I think the the education model is too different and you may feel disillusioned (Culture shock, Quality of medical care for poor patients) and inadequate (Indian system is more hands-on training in medical school, you wouldn't be able to do lots of stuff in internship which your Indian trained counterparts can do) when you come to India. I am not saying that the Indian model is better, I am applying for a residency in the US myself, but it is more suited to Indian needs. Why do you want to come to India after SGU or Ross? If you're not a resident of India, it would make more sense to go to the US for a residency after a stint in the Caribbean. If you're a resident Indian, then that money would be better utilized in getting an NRI seat in a government medical college (there are ways) or joining a private medical college in India.

I am assuming that you're at least of Indian origin, otherwise why would you come to India.

 

[docontherocks32]

Medical Council of India Screening Test - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This might be helpful to you.

 

[Mr.MG]

India follows the Commonwealth setup of medical education, with medical school being a 4.5+ 1 year course. The last year is internship where you rotate in various departments as an intern. Unlike the US, the intern in India is not a PGY 1, but has a similar role to play. After clearing all exams and finishing your internship you get the MBBS degree, and a licence to practice as a general practitioner.

The degrees from SGU or Ross are not recognized in India per se. You will have to clear a written exam by the Medical Council of India (MCI) and then work as an intern in a tertiary care center for a year to get a licence in India. Most of the people giving the MCI exam are med school pass outs of China, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, etc (essentially those who couldn't get into medical schools in India). Either the quality of people taking the exam is poor or the level of exam is too high, but the passing rate is about 1 in 3. You can however reappear in the exam and some people spend years clearing it (while some clear it in the first attempt as well). Once you get an Indian licence, you can appear for a residency in India (which was your question in the first place)

I was a clinical tutor in SGU, and from my experience there and during rotations in the US, I think the the education model is too different and you may feel disillusioned (Culture shock, Quality of medical care for poor patients) and inadequate (Indian system is more hands-on training in medical school, you wouldn't be able to do lots of stuff in internship which your Indian trained counterparts can do) when you come to India. I am not saying that the Indian model is better, I am applying for a residency in the US myself, but it is more suited to Indian needs. Why do you want to come to India after SGU or Ross? If you're not a resident of India, it would make more sense to go to the US for a residency after a stint in the Caribbean. If you're a resident Indian, then that money would be better utilized in getting an NRI seat in a government medical college (there are ways) or joining a private medical college in India.

I am assuming that you're at least of Indian origin, otherwise why would you come to India.

Thank you for the detailed response. So, I would have to pass the MCI exam, then complete an internship, and then I would get a residency?
Also are residencies required for general practitioners?

To answer the bolded part, I am of Indian origin, although I am a US/UK citizen. My goal has always been to be a doctor and practice in India.

 

[docontherocks32]

Thank you for the detailed response. So, I would have to pass the MCI exam, then complete an internship, and then I would get a residency?
Also are residencies required for general practitioners?

To answer the bolded part, I am of Indian origin, although I am a US/UK citizen. My goal has always been to be a doctor and practice in India.

Once you get the licence from MCI, you're equal to an MBBS doctor from India. An MBBS doctor in India (general practitioner) does not earn much. The salary ranges from INR 30,000 in private setup to INR 50000 in government setup (very few jobs, highly overworked, usually in rural setup). I am not converting into USD or GBP because that doesn't give an idea in terms of purchasing power parity. The only people who come to GP's are the ones who can't afford better care, are far from government secondary or tertiary care centers or know a veteran GP for years. Working as a GP in India, it'll take you years to decades to earn back what you paid as tuition fee in the Caribbean.

For getting into a residency, you'll need to appear in the Post Graduate Entrance Test. Based on your rank there, you'll be offered a residency (PG) seat. The PG seats are highly competitive and strictly by merit (ranking). How it works is that rank 1 will be asked to choose where he wants to do a residency among all available programs and in which subject. After him rank 2 gets to choose and so on. Also, all residency programs in India are not the same in quality and many of them are not that good, while some are actually bad. After rank 2k-3k, the chances of getting a good residency are bleak and getting the subject of your choice is rare. This is the entrance test held by the central authority (maximum number of seats). Some premier institutes and many private institutes hold their own exams. The private seats are paid and often inferior to the government seats in terms of academics, patient load and hands on approach. And when I say paid, I mean serious dough. An internal medicine seat can cost you more than INR 1 crore while a radiology seat could go up to 4 crores (1 crore INR is approx 160 k USD).

To give you an example on how tough it is to get into a good residency, my junior from medical school got rank 7 in the exam by AIIMS (the best med school in India) but could not get into internal medicine. He will try again in 6 months to get a better rank!

But another fact is that almost all my juniors got a residency somewhere or the other (all non paid seats) , so you just need to work real hard.

 

[docontherocks32]

You're eligible for an NRI seat in India. I have read many posts on the forum where NRI's curse the Indian experience. If you work hard and can get good guidance, you can make it to a good government medical school. Government med schools do not charge "donation". You only pay the fee ( which is about 50 lac INR or 80k USD) for the entire 5.5 years. quality of education in good med schools is actually very good. One of my seniors just finished IM at Harvard (Indian citizen, no green card and not in their community program).

I had the pleasure of having many NRI's as friends or seniors and most of them did exceptionally well in med school and in USMLE. Many of them are doing good residencies in the US as well. No doubt you'll have to work hard to adapt since you're accustomed to a method of schooling different from India. Also, many of your teachers and peers would initially look down upon you as they expect you to be sub par. If you show that you're willing to work hard, it will soon be forgotten that you're an NRI. An NRI senior of mine actually topped in Internal Medicine in med school and later did radiology from University of Rochester (not the community program). Who ever says that MBBS is all about mugging up and no fun either was at the wrong place or doesn't really want to study at all.

Most of the authors here appeared to be highly biased to me. I have studied here, and never seen experiences such as theirs. Read this thread in its entirety. This is one of the few balanced accounts on the forum for NRI's: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...f-coming-to-india-for-their-education.548215/
@drk has studied in a Government med school in India but had not too good an experience. Try talking to him as well.

If you decide to come to India, you'll need to adapt to the culture here. Speak to some actual people who you know to be good students and good people and who have done MBBS in India. Try going to a place where you know the local language. Many of the NRI's who were never good students or were forced by their parents to study MBBS in India come to India expecting an easy life and with major biases. Most end up going to private med schools. Barring Manipal and a few others, most private schools are not up to the mark. Such students end up getting frustrated, waste their time and money, and end up bad mouthing India. What ever happens, don't go to a bad medical school in India, you'll be ruined. If you do your research well and work hard, you should not face any trouble.

Best of luck

 

[Mr.MG]

You're eligible for an NRI seat in India. I have read many posts on the forum where NRI's curse the Indian experience. If you work hard and can get good guidance, you can make it to a good government medical school. Government med schools do not charge "donation". You only pay the fee ( which is about 50 lac INR or 80k USD) for the entire 5.5 years. quality of education in good med schools is actually very good. One of my seniors just finished IM at Harvard (Indian citizen, no green card and not in their community program).

I had the pleasure of having many NRI's as friends or seniors and most of them did exceptionally well in med school and in USMLE. Many of them are doing good residencies in the US as well. No doubt you'll have to work hard to adapt since you're accustomed to a method of schooling different from India. Also, many of your teachers and peers would initially look down upon you as they expect you to be sub par. If you show that you're willing to work hard, it will soon be forgotten that you're an NRI. An NRI senior of mine actually topped in Internal Medicine in med school and later did radiology from University of Rochester (not the community program). Who ever says that MBBS is all about mugging up and no fun either was at the wrong place or doesn't really want to study at all.

Most of the authors here appeared to be highly biased to me. I have studied here, and never seen experiences such as theirs. Read this thread in its entirety. This is one of the few balanced accounts on the forum for NRI's: http://forums.studentdoctor.net/thr...f-coming-to-india-for-their-education.548215/
@drk has studied in a Government med school in India but had not too good an experience. Try talking to him as well.

If you decide to come to India, you'll need to adapt to the culture here. Speak to some actual people who you know to be good students and good people and who have done MBBS in India. Try going to a place where you know the local language. Many of the NRI's who were never good students or were forced by their parents to study MBBS in India come to India expecting an easy life and with major biases. Most end up going to private med schools. Barring Manipal and a few others, most private schools are not up to the mark. Such students end up getting frustrated, waste their time and money, and end up bad mouthing India. What ever happens, don't go to a bad medical school in India, you'll be ruined. If you do your research well and work hard, you should not face any trouble.

Best of luck

Thank you docontherocks32, you have been a big help.