Medical graduates in Kerala who have completed their training in modern medicine are facing delays of up to two months in receiving their permanent registration certificates from the Kerala State Medical Council (KSMC), The Hindu has reported.
As per the rules, MBBS students undergo a one-year compulsory internship after completing their four-and-a-half-year course. For this, they are issued provisional registration certificates. On successful completion of the internship, graduates are required to apply for permanent registration through their medical colleges and the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS). The process involves submitting documents online and posting hard copies to the Council, which then verifies and issues the certificates.
However, several graduates have alleged that KSMC is taking longer than expected to dispatch their certificates. Some students from the 2019 batch told The Hindu that delays occur due to the time taken for documents to move from medical colleges to KUHS and then to the Council. While a few graduates reportedly received registration numbers over the phone, others had to wait weeks or even months for the original certificates.
The delay has left many unable to apply for Kerala Public Service Commission tests or pursue higher studies. Job opportunities are also being missed, according to G.S. Aswin Das, general secretary of the General Practitioners Association. He noted that some private hospitals refuse to employ doctors without original registration certificates. Das suggested that KSMC should adopt a system like Karnataka’s, where applications are processed in a single day. He also alleged that graduates often fail to get responses from KSMC staff when seeking clarifications.
Meanwhile, KSMC president G.S. Harikumaran Nair refuted claims of delays, stating that if all documents are proper, certificates are issued within two weeks. He explained that problems arise when bulk submissions from colleges slow down verification, or when students fail to respond to queries about errors in their documents uploaded on the Council’s website or sent via email.
