The number of medical doctors obtaining a 'Good Standing Certificate' from the Nepal Medical Council has surpassed a number of those acquiring the council license so far this year as in 2025. This indicates a significant trend of doctors seeking career opportunities aboard.
It is believed that such a medical work force preferred going overseas in search of 'better' and 'more lucrative career prospects' there.
Annually around 2,000 doctors obtain the license from the Council while an equal number of doctors acquire the 'Good Standing Certificate'. It is said that the Good Standing Certificate is generally required to explore career or academic opportunities outside the country.
In 2025, a total of 2,390 doctors obtained this certificate, while in contrast, the Council issued 2,122 licenses the same year. This year, the number of good standing certificates was issued to more than 268 than the number of license holders.
According to Council's Good Standing Certificate Verification Chief, Pradeep Rijal, since 2020, a total of 13,140 doctors received the license while the number of Good Standing Certificate stands at 11,068.
Council's acting registrar Dr Dipendra Pandey said since the past 10 years, the number of doctors going aboard has increased and lucrative payment, perks and facilities are among those pull factors for this trend.
According to him, the United States of America, the United Kingdom, the Maldives, the United Arab Emirates, Australia, India, Canada, and Germany are among the preferred destinations for doctors.
In Nepal, opportunities at the medical officer-level are limited. They prefer to study the Masters' degree aboard and explore jobs in hospitals there.
According to the Council data, since 2020, a total of 2995 doctors have gone to the USA followed by 2,637 to the United Kingdom, 2,241 to the Maldives, 848 to Australia, 720 to the UAE, 148 to Canada and 92 to Germany. Similarly, 918 went to neighboring India as well. According to the Council, overall, Nepali doctors have migrated to 23 countries in pursuit of better career opportunities.
In 2020, the number of 'Good Standing Certificate' stood at 869 followed by 1,327 in 2021, 1954 in 2022, 2,318 in 2023 and 2210 in 2024, showing a steadily increasing graph.
Good Standing Certificate is required for both employment and higher studies abroad, said Acting Registrar Pandey, however in case of Nepal, most doctors obtain the certificate primarily for employment than for further studies.
The number of the NMC license issued in 2020 was 2,131, 1,716 in 2021, 2,085 in 2022, 2,692 in 2023, 2,394 in 2024.
Limited facilities and career opportunities in Nepal are considered major push factors encouraging doctors to seek opportunities abroad.
It is said limited facilities in Nepal is the pushing factor doctors. So far, the NMC issued 39486 licenses
The number of Good Standing Certificates issued has shown a steadily increasing trend: 869 in 2020, 1,327 in 2021, 1,954 in 2022, 2,318 in 2023, and 2,210 in 2024.
So far, the Nepal Medical Council has issued a total of 39,486 medical licenses.
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