The National Medical Commission, the new regulator for medical education in India, will be assuming charge from 25th September 2020. The corrupted beleaguered Medical Council of India (MCI), which is 87 years old, has been dissolved by the Central Government. Thursday night (24th September) saw the Central Government notified the National Medical Commission which will have 33 members, confirming its implementation from Friday.
With this notification, the board of governors will be dissolved automatically for the MCI. This BoG was appointed four years earlier for operating affairs of the MCI while the organization itself remained dissolved. The MCI has now been officially abolished by the Centre on 24th September. Suresh Chandra Sharma, the HoD, ENT, AIIMS, New Delhi, has been named as the NMC chairperson and the organization will have four boards (autonomous). They will be regulating medical education at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels along with ethics, medical registration, and medical assessment.
This means that all provisions outlined in the 2019 NMC Act will be implemented from Friday including fee regulations for 50% of seats in deemed universities and private medical colleges. Inspections will conclude for college renewals while final-year MBBS examinations will start for the following purposes- licentiate examination for pass-outs of MBBS for giving them the license for practicing medicine, the entrance examination for medical education at the postgraduate level, and entrance examination for graduates in foreign medicine. Known as the National Exit Test, the final year examination for MBBS will be replacing the current NEET (National Eligibility cum Entrance Test) for PG aspirants along with the Foreign Medical Graduates Test.
Other major developments worth noting
The NMC will be creating regulations for a new non-MBBS cadre which will include mid-level providers of health services including pharmacists and nursing practitioners with limited medicine dispensing rights. Aruna Vanikar, the HoD of Pathology, GR Doshi, Institute of Kidney Diseases, Ahmedabad, will be the president of the UG Medical Board. The Head, Surgery, Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute, MK Ramesh, will be the president of the PG Medical Board. Achal Gulati, Director Principal at BR Ambedkar Medical College, Delhi, will also be a president along with BN Gangadhar (Director of NIMHANS Bangalore) will be the president of the medical ethics and registration board.
Director at PGI Chandigarh, Jagat Ram has also been named amongst the 11 full-time NMC members with a tenure of 3 years commencing from Friday. Raj Bahadur, the VC at Baba Farid University of Health Sciences, Faridkot, VC at Atal Medical and Research University, Himachal Pradesh, Surender Kashyap and Pandit Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences Rohtak VC, OP Kalra are amongst 10 VCs named in the part-NMC member list for a period of 2 years. Post the conclusion of their tenure, a rotation policy will be followed for providing representation to VCs from the other Indian States. The UG Medical Education Board also has a new part-time appointee in Mukut Minz from the Urology Department at Fortis Mohali. The journey of the NMC started in the year 2016 when the first draft for the same was unveiled by NITI Aayog.
