The NExT is a licentiate exam to practice modern medicine and for merit-based admission to postgraduate courses.
The National Medical Commission has less than a month to take a final call on the feasibility to conduct the NExT exam for final MBBS students in 2023 amid uncertainty among aspirants over the syllabus, pattern of the examination and its timing. Under the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act, the Commission has to conduct a common final year undergraduate medical examination, which will be called as National Exit Test (NExT) within three years of it coming into force. The NExT will serve as a common qualifying final year Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) exam, a licentiate exam to practice modern medicine and for merit-based admission to postgraduate courses and a bridging exam for foreign medical graduates who want to practice in India.
The Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA) recently wrote to the NMC seeking clarity on holding the National Exit Test. Meanwhile, the Union health ministry is also learnt to have sought NMC's view immediately on the feasibility of conducting the exam while informing it that if preparations are not in place, then extending the timeline for holding the exam in 2024 would require invoking provisions of the Act by September 24, 2022. Sources highlighted that generally, National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test Postgraduate (NEET PG) is conducted around April or May every year and as NExT is supposed to replace it and so the exam should be conducted in the month of April or May which could be the earliest in 2023.
But conducting the exam requires preparations such as working out the modalities and deciding on the syllabus, type and pattern of the exam on whether it will be an analytical or a multiple choice questions based test and number of tests and requisite regulations they said, adding students will also have to given adequate time to prepare for the new exam. Mock tests would need to be also carried out before the main test is held. Besides, it also needs to be decided on which agency will conduct the exam.
"If such preparations are not in place, NMC will have to then extend the timeline of holding NEXT till 2024. But, however, extending the time would require invoking the provisions of Section 59(1) of the NMC Act which is related to the removal of difficulties. It is important to highlight that these provisions can be used only till September 24, 2022, that is, within two years of commencement of the Act," the source stated, adding the last way out will be to amend the Act to get an extension for the timeline for holding the exam which would be a lengthy process.
The NMC in its recent replies to some of the Right to Information (RTI) queries maintained that the exam will begin in 2023. The FORDA in its letter mentioned that due to the pandemic, several PG aspirants have faced hurdles such as postponement of NEET PG, 2020 counselling followed by delayed exam and counselling for NEET PG 2021 session, to unexplained delays in NEET PG 2022 counselling schedule, "the NEET PG aspirant fraternity has been the worst affected". Further, they claimed that there has been a continuous communication gap between NMC and NBE over the upcoming exam session in 2023 and the implementation of the NExT exam as a replacement for the NEET PG examination.
"This has further potentiated the unpredictability in minds of PG aspirants given that seven months have already passed in this year. It is, therefore, our sincere request to you, on behalf of the NEET PG aspirant fraternity at large, that the NMC or NBE clarifies the doubts pertaining to this matter by releasing or publishing the regulations, if any, without further delay," the FORDA stated. The importance of the NExT exam lies in the fact that it will be the same for everyone whether trained in India or any part of the world and hence it will solve the problem of foreign medical graduates (FMGs) or mutual recognition, officials said.