All Medical colleges to have Tobacco Cessation Centres: NMC

New Delhi: Aiming to reduce the practice of tobacco usage in the country, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has asked all the medical college hospitals across the country to set up "Tobacco Cessation Centres"

The Commission has suggested setting up such centres as a special clinic operated by the Department of Psychiatry or other departments. Further, NMC has directed establishing such centres in the rural and urban health centres that the college has adopted for training.

Issuing a circular in this regard on 12th July, 2024, the Secretary of the Apex Medical Commission, Dr. (Prof.) B Srinivas mentioned, "In line with its commitment to promote public health and combating the adverse effects of tobacco use, the Government has decided to establish Tobacco Cessation Centres in medical colleges across the country. This initiative aims to strengthen the healthcare infrastructure by integrating specialized services for tobacco cessation into the educational and healthcare framework."

"All the hospitals attached to each of the medical colleges are directed to make provisions for "Tobacco Cessation Centre". This can be a special clinic run by the Department of Psychiatry and/or other departments. These Centres should also be established in rural and urban health centres that the college has adopted for training. These Centres along with tobacco cessation, will also work as "Drug De-addiction Centres"," the NMC circular further added.

The Apex Medical Education Regulatory body has sent a copy of the circular to all the medical colleges/institutions under its purview. 

According to the Global Adult Tobacco Survey in India (GATS 2) 2016-17, a staggering number of individuals are tobacco users, PTI has reported. Studies have shown that India has the second largest number of tobacco users (268 million or 28.6 per cent of all adults in India) in the world , of these at least 1.2 million die every year from tobacco related diseases.

Nearly 27 per cent of all cancers in India are due to tobacco usage. The total direct and indirect cost of diseases attributable to tobacco use was a staggering Rs 182,000 crore which is nearly 1.8 per cent of India's GDP. Tobacco smokers are at a higher risk of developing TB and experiencing more severe forms of the disease.

Medical Dialogues had last year reported that after the World Health Organization's (WHO) call for a ban on the e-cigarettes, NMC had directed the doctors to refrain from initiating or participating in any research activities related to e-cigarettes and HTPs without obtaining the necessary approval from the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

Earlier, DGHS Dr. Atul Goel had also written to the Commission raising the issue and asked it to issue necessary instructions to all the healthcare professionals affiliated with NMC and the Indian Medical Association (IMA).

To view the NMC circular for Tobacco Cessation Centres, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/tobacco-cessation-clinic--244071.pdf

Also Read: After WHO ban, NMC directs doctors not to participate in e cigarettes related research without permission