Changes sought in nostrification of medical degrees from former Soviet bloc

The Supreme Medical Council (NRL) will appeal to the Foreign Minister to change provisions in the 1972 Prague Convention which equates medical degrees from the former Soviet Union, Vietnam, Mongolia, Bulgaria, Romania and Cuba with Polish degrees and thus do not have to be nostrified, i.e. validated. "The whole situation is a paradox, since graduates of well-known Western universities have to nostrify their diplomas while doctors from the former Soviet Union have their documents accepted automatically," said NRL president Krzysztof Madej. He also added that merely graduating from an academy of medicine does not give one the right to practice medicine. Such a right in Poland is given by NRL and the candidate has to meet several criteria specified in official regulations. (Rzeczpospolita, p.A