NMC proposes 3-year Rotatory Headship in Medical College Depts

New Delhi: Proposing changes in the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations 2023, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued amendments and invited feedback from the stakeholders, which must be submitted within the specified deadline.

NMC's draft regulations, "Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations (Amendment), 2025" were published in the official Gazette on May 30, 2025. In this draft, the Commission has proposed to introduce a rotatory headship and include M.S. (Traumatology and Surgery) as a feeder broad speciality qualification for M.Ch Neurosurgery, M.Ch Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and M.Ch. Vascular Surgery courses.

Regulation 7.1 of the PGMER 2023 discusses the structure of a Department, its Units, its Faculties- Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, and other members of the Department, including Senior and Junior Residents. Regarding headship, the 2023 Regulations stated that "Each Department will be headed by a Professor."

Now, to amend this rule, NMC in the recent draft regulation (Amendment), mentioned that Department headship shall be changed on a rotation basis every three years among Professors and Associate Professors who are eligible to become Professors.

The Commission has added the following to the existing Regulation 7.1 of PGMER 2023:

"The post of the Head of Department (HoD) will be rotated every three-years amongst Professors and Associate Professors who are eligible to become Professor, who holds Medical Post-graduate degree, based on seniority in the Department."

In the proposed amendment, NMC has also included M.S. (Traumatology and Surgery) as a feeder broad speciality qualification for pursuing super speciality (M.Ch) courses in Neurosurgery, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and Vascular Surgery.

The Commission mentioned in the proposed amendment that Sl. No. 6, 10 and 15 of Part B. in Annexure-7 of the Regulations under the heading “FEEDER BROAD SPECIALITY QUALIFICATIONS FOR SUPER SPECIALITY COURSES” will now read as:-

In the PGMER 2023, the feeder broad specialist qualifications for these courses were as follows:

Also Read: Doctors with MS Traumatology and Surgery degrees eligible to pursue 3 MCh Specialities: NMC

Medical Dialogues reported earlier this year that the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of NMC decided to provisionally allow PG degree holders in Traumatology and Surgery to appear in the National Eligibility-Entrance Test Super Speciality (NEET-SS) 2024 examination for the M.Ch. specialties in Neurosurgery, Vascular Surgery, and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. NEET SS 2024 was held on 29th and 30th March, 2025. However, while making the announcement, the Apex Medical Commission had clarified that the final selection of the students for the said specialties will be subject to the PGMER (Amendment) Regulations 2025 getting approved and published in the Gazette of India.

Recently, publishing the draft regulations (amendment) on the official Gazette, the Commission mentioned, "The National Medical Commission proposes certain amendment to the Regulation 7.1under the heading Department; and Sl. No. 6, 10 and 15 of Part B. in Annexure-7 of the Regulations under the heading “FEEDER BROAD SPECIALITY QUALIFICATIONS FOR SUPER SPECIALITY COURSES” of the Principal Regulation i.e PGMER2023, the draft Regulation amending the Regulation7.1 of PGMER-2023 and Sl. No. 6, 10 and 15 of Part B in Annexure7 of the Regulations under the heading “FEEDER BROAD SPECIALITY QUALIFICATIONS FOR SUPER SPECIALITY COURSES” have been prepared and approved by the competent authority following due procedures and is hereby published for information of all stakeholders likely to be affected thereby and notice is hereby given that the said draft Regulation (amendment) shall be taken into consideration on or after the expiry of a period of thirty (30) days from the date on which the copies of the Gazette of India containing these draft Regulation (amendment) are made available to public."

The Commission also added that objections and suggestions that may be received from any person within the deadline will be considered by NMC. "Objections and suggestions, if any, may be addressed to the Director (PGMEB), NMC, Room No.214, 2nd Floor, National Medical Commission, Pocket-14, Sector-8, Dwarka, Phase-1, New Delhi-77 and sent by e-mail at (pgmer2025amendment@nmc.org.in) in the prescribed format... The objections and suggestions be sent only on the above e-mail ID and objections/suggestions received in any other means i.e physical or through other modes will not be entertained," it added.

To view the NMC notification, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/nmc-draft-amendment-2025-290241.pdf

Also Read: Final PGMER 2023 Regulations released in Gazette, details