NEW DELHI: In what is bound to offer huge relief to a large number of doctors who have completed super-speciality courses in the UK, the medical education regulator in India has decided to approve their certificate of completion of training (CCT) for registration in the country.
CCT is a post-PG specialisation that makes doctors in the UK eligible to work as consultants and general practitioners there.
Till a few months ago, India hadn’t granted it recognition, so CCT holders weren’t considered super-specialists.
“The approval to recognise CCT was given in an April meeting of the governing body,” R K Vats, secretary-general of the Medical Council of India-Board of Governors said.
CCT approval is significant in a country like India where a shortage of specialist doctors is close to 80 per cent.
Murali Krishna Bhagavatula from Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, a doctor trained in the UK and Canada who has been pushing for recognition in India for the last two years, described the MCI-BOG decision as “huge”.
“It will have big implications for hundreds of doctors willing to come back to India to work,” said Murali who had also written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the issue.
However, the MCI-BOG decision in April is yet to percolate to the State Medical Councils, so many doctors across India are still being denied registration as super specialists.
Vats admitted that there was some delay in issuing a circular in this regard but assured it will be done very soon.