Fourteen foreign doctors' registrations suspended, 500 files under review: Nepal Medical Council's August 2026 probe into 'khadebaba' ghost faculty at medical colleges

In Nepal the number of MBBS and postgraduate seats a medical college may fill is set by the Medical Education Commission after monitoring visits that count faculty and facilities. The Nepal Medical Council (NMC) registers every doctor, including foreign doctors who come to teach. Those two rules create an incentive: a college that can show more professors on inspection day gets more seats, and more seats mean more fee income.

According to The Kathmandu Post (20 August 2026), the NMC formed a committee headed by Dr Chhabi Panthi to examine the documents of all foreign doctors seeking to serve in Nepal. Some Good Standing Certificates had not been issued by the authority named on them, and one doctor permitted to work in Nepal was working in his home country at the same time. Acting registrar Dr Dipendra Pandey said the council suspected private colleges bring in foreign doctors, mostly from India, only to present them during monitoring visits. The council put foreign doctors in Nepal at 300 to 500, suspended the registration of doctors whose documents were forged or under investigation, and asked recommending institutions for written explanations.

Onlinekhabar (21 August 2026) reported the NMC had suspended the registration of 14 foreign doctors after the Indian regulator said it had not issued the certificates submitted in their names, and that it was studying around 500 files. Dr Pandey said the certificates presented in Nepal appeared fabricated, not that the doctors were unregistered in India. An NMC member described the practice known as 'khadebaba' or dummy faculty: doctors brought from India before an inspection, listed as faculty, then sent home. Colleges were warned of action if foreign doctors were listed only to keep or increase seats. myRepublica (7 October) reported that the Ministry of Education was preparing checks on faculty appointments, attendance and teaching records, with possible licence suspension for doctors who lend their names. Ratopati (9 October 2026) counted more than 175 doctors registered as faculty across 16 major colleges whom students complain they cannot even see, and reported that commission member secretary Hari Niraula said fake faculty are not acceptable.

The check that failed was the Good Standing Certificate. Colleges forwarded foreign doctors' papers to the council without verifying them with the issuing regulator, and The Kathmandu Post noted that the commission's monitoring teams no longer include a council representative.

For students comparing Nepali colleges, ask for the current faculty list, then ask students there whether those teachers actually take classes. The NMC register is public; a professor should be on it, and a foreign doctor should hold a verified Good Standing Certificate. A college that inflates faculty for inspections is also inflating the education it is selling you.