National Medical Register: NMC begins registration, All doctors to have unique IDs

New Delhi: Finally, the process of registering doctors on the National Medical Register (NMR) has commenced. Now that the National Medical Commission (NMC) has initiated the NMR registration process, all MBBS doctors eligible to practice in India will register themselves on the recently launched portal and as a part of it all of them will have a unique ID.

PTI has reported that regarding the commencement of the NMR registration process, the Secretary of NMR, Dr. B Srinivas said, "The NMR is ready for registration of registered medical practitioners (RMPs) with immediate effect."

NMR is a dynamic database and will be a central repository of all registered doctors, in which their authenticity is verified by Aadhaar IDs. All the MBBS doctors who are registered on Indian Medical Register (IMR) have to register again on the NMR, the NMC said in a public notice recently, and added that all medical colleges/institutions, state medical councils (SMCs) are inter-linked on the portal.

Some data will be visible to the public and others will only be visible to Ethics & Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of the NMC, SMC, National Board of Examinations (NBE) and medical institutions and RMPs as per requirements, the notice said.

To start the registration process, doctors would need their Aadhaar IDs, a digital copy of their MBBS degree certificate and the registration certificate of the State Medical Council/Medical Council of India where the doctor got registered the first time. Additional details like registration and qualification credentials can be manually entered and submitted through the portal.

Following this, the application is automatically forwarded to the respective SMC for verification. The SMC would then forward the application to the relevant college or institute for further review. Upon successful verification, the application is sent to the NMC.

After verification by NMC, a unique NMR ID would be issued. During this process, doctors can opt to join the Healthcare Provider Registry which will link them to the broader digital healthcare ecosystem, the notice said.

Through this portal, all stakeholders, including SMCs and educational institutions can log in and verify applications from a single platform. The NMR portal offers a variety of features, including the ability to add additional qualifications, track applications, suspend licenses, and issue NMR ID cards and digital doctor certificates, it said.

Currently, registration using the MBBS degree is only available on the portal and adding additional qualification(s) would be made available soon, the NMC said.

"Till date, there was a lack of comprehensive data that could provide a detailed and holistic picture of aspects like total numbers of doctors in the country, those that have left the country, those who have lost their license to practice, or the numbers and details of doctors that have lost their lives. The launch of the NMR will ensure the provision of data of its more than 13 lakh doctors," an official had earlier said.

The National Medical Register (NMR) Portal was inaugurated by Union Health Minister J P Nadda on August 23. "The National Health Register is a much-awaited step in this direction that will strengthen the digital healthcare ecosystem and will ensure quality healthcare to the people of India," Nadda had stated.

It is mandated under Section 31 of the NMC Act, 2019 that the Ethics & Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of the NMC shall maintain a national register in electronic form containing the name, address, all recognised qualifications possessed by a licensed medical practitioner.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of NMC had suggested that the doctors assess the National Medical Register (NMR) portal only through the Commission's website for the sake of authenticity. 

Further, the Apex Medical Commission's Ethics Board had also stated that currently, only the provision for the Registration of Basic Qualification (MBBS) is available on the NMR portal and the provision for Registration of additional qualification(s) would be made available on the portal shortly