NMC to start updating National Medical Register soon
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New Delhi: The much-anticipated process of updating the details of the doctors in the National Medical Register (NMR) may start soon, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has confirmed through a recent notice.
In this regard, the Apex Medical Commission informed that it constituted an Expert Committee for the maintenance of the NMR and in the recent meeting, the panel recommended that the data available with the Commission may be authenticated and updated in association with the State Medical Councils.
"NMC intends to initiate the task soon", NMC Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) informed in the notice dated 29.04.2024. It also advised all the Registered Medical Practitioners to keep constant check on the NMC website as well as the websites of the concerned SMCs for further updates in the matter.
Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that in a Gazette notification, NMC had announced its decision to have a National Medical Register for all registered medical practitioners in May 2023. The Commission published the "Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations" in the Gazette of India on May 10, 2023.
Previously addressing the panic amongst doctors to get registered in the National Medical Register, NMC had informed that it would launch an integrated web portal catering to all stakeholders of the medical community including State Medical Councils (SMC), and medical colleges. The Commission also mentioned that this portal will be used for the registration of medical practitioners. NMC iterated that this process of setting up the portal would take some more time and once the portal gets activated, the registration process would begin.
Now, in the notice dated 29.04.2024, NMC mentioned that "section 31 (1) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 provides that the Ethics and Medical Registration Board shall maintain a National Register containing the name, address, all recognized qualifications possessed by a licensed medical practitioner."
The Commission informed that "an Expert Committee comprising of NMC officers and SMC officers have been constituted by National Medical Commission for the maintenance of "National Medical Register (NMR)"."
Referring to the recent meeting of the Expert Committee, the Commission informed -"the committee has recommended that the data available with National Medical Commission may be authenticated and updated in association with State Medical Councils. NMC intends to initiate the task soon."
"As such, all Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) are advised to keep constant check on NMC website as well as concerned SMC website for further updates in the matter," it further added.
Earlier, NMC officials had informed that first a pilot project of NMR would be launched and the NMR would most likely be ready by the end of 2024 or in the year 2025.
How will NMR remove the issue of duplication?
At present, in order to practice in any of the States across the Country, a graduated doctor needs to apply to the concerned State Medical Council (SMC) separately. When he applies to the SMC (independently whether he is registered in the previous medical council or not) he is given a new registration number.
When the National Medical Register (NMR) comes into force, a doctor will be entered into NMR, and on the basis of his/her application, the doctor will get a unique doctor ID.
Previously, Dr. Yogender Malik, a member of NMC Ethics Board, had explained that with the introduction of NMC, there will be a common registration number and the process of registration will be different from that of issuing licence. He had informed that the UID generated from the NMR would be constant and there will be an option for doctors to apply for licence in various States.
Currently, all the doctors are applying for different registration numbers in different State Medical Councils and they are getting different numbers as well.
What information will be available in NMR?
Whenever a doctor applies for registration in the NMR, all the records of that concerned doctor will be uploaded against his/her name and unique ID. The Register, which shall be available on the website of the National Medical Commission (NMC), shall display the information of a doctor such as his/her UID, registration number, name, place of work, qualifications, speciality and name of the Institute/University from where the qualifications were obtained among other key details. These will be made public.
There will be some private information as well of the doctors (such as telephone number,email id, etc,) and that will be visible to only concerned authorities such as the doctor herself, the NMC, etc. This will be login based.
How will it end Fake Doctor Menace?
The National Medical Register (NMR) will be a public document as it will be available online on the NMC website. Therefore, the general public can easily get access to the register and verify the credentials of a doctor. This will, in turn, help to put an end to the fake doctor menace.
To view the NMC notice, click on the link below:
https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/nmc-national-medical-register-239164.pdf
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