Medical graduates in Kerala flag delay in getting registration from KSMC

Modern medicine graduates from the State are reportedly facing a delay of up to two months to get their permanent registration certificates from the Kerala State Medical Councils (KSMC).

The students are given provisional registration certificates for a one-year mandatory internship in medical college hospitals after the culmination of their four-and-a-half-year course. Following the successful completion of the internship, they are supposed to approach the KSMC through their respective medical colleges and the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS) for their permanent registration numbers and certificates. They need to upload the soft copies of the documents online and the hard copies are to be sent by post to the council. The documents are then verified and examined before the permanent registration numbers and certificates are allotted to them.

Some of the graduates belonging to the 2019 MBBS batch, who requested anonymity, told The Hindu that a lot of time was being taken for the despatch of the documents from the respective colleges and the KUHS. Though some graduates were being given the registration numbers over phone, many others were left behind. Some of those who graduated in previous years claimed they got their original registration certificates only after a month or two.

Unable to apply for tests

As a result, most of these graduates are unable to apply for the tests conducted by the Kerala Public Service Commission for various government posts during the period. Those who wish to go for higher studies also are facing a crisis. G.S. Aswin Das, general secretary of the General Practitioners Association, a forum of MBBS doctors, said that many were not able to accept job offers as well.

“With just the registration number and without the original certificates, these doctors often don’t get employed in good hospitals. The KSMC should emulate the Karnataka Medical Council, which takes just a day to process the applications for registrations. If you apply for it in the morning, you can get the certificates by the evening,” he said. Dr. Aswin Das also alleged that the KSMC staff were unresponsive if the medical graduates called them to seek clarifications.

However, G.S. Harikumaran Nair, president, KSMC (Modern Medicine), said that there was no possibility of any delay for the applicants from Kerala if all their submitted documents were proper. He pointed out that it would take not more than two weeks to process such applications. However, some times, the documents were being sent in bulk from the medical colleges, making their verification a lengthy process. On other occasions, some students don’t respond to the updates related to the defects in their documents on the council’s website or do not reply to the emails sent to them. Such situations could cause some delay, he added.