One Doctor, One Registration: How the National Medical Register will remove duplication of state medical council registrations

New Delhi: The much-anticipated National Medical Register (NMR) will finally come into effect by the end of the next year i.e. 2024 or in 2025, the National Medical Commission (NMC) officials have informed.

The implementation of the NMR will finally give people an exact answer to a simple question that is most often approximated: "How Many Doctors are there in India?"

Replacing the existing Indian Medical Register (IMR), the new National Medical Register will ensure that each of the doctors in India has a Unique ID and registration number that would be linked to their Aadhar numbers

the NMR, which will be available in the public domain and placed on the NMC website, will display all the details regarding a doctor including his/her UID, registration number, name, place of work, qualifications, speciality, and name of the Institute/University from where the qualifications were obtained, etc.

The NMR will also solve various issues plaguing the medical profession such as incomplete data, duplicate registrations, and a lack of updation of data in instances such as new qualification, death, place of work etc.

Talking to media persons here, Dr. Yogender Malik, a member of the NMC Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) and the Head of the NMC Media Division further informed that a pilot project of the NMR will be launched in the coming six months and most likely it will be ready by the end of 2024 or in the year 2025.

Here are the key details about the upcoming National Medical Register (NMR):

When will NMR come into effect?

The Commission has informed that a pilot project of the National Medical Register (NMR) will be launched in the coming six months. The NMR will 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.

Responding to the queries raised by Medical Dialogues, Dr. Yogender Malik explained that with the introduction of the NMR, there will be a common registration number and the process of registration will be different from that of issuing licence.

Further explaining the new system and the distinguishing factor between registration and licence, Dr. Malik mentioned that the UID generated from the NMR will be constant and there will be an option for doctors to apply for licence in various States. He also mentioned that this entire process of registration and obtaining licence will be done online.

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.

"The initiative of creating 'one nation one registration platform' for doctors is also aimed at eliminating duplication and red-tapism," Dr Malik said.

"Presently, nearly 14 lakh doctors are registered with the IMR. They need not worry as the entire data will be transferred to the NMR. They won't have to register again," Dr Malik said.

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 back in May this year. The Commission had 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 had also mentioned that this portal will be used for the registration of medical practitioners. 

NMC has clearly iterated that this process of setting up the portal is likely to take some more time and once the portal gets activated, the registration process shall begin. " All doctors will be informed on the registration as the development take place," the officials added 

Also Read: Coming Soon: An Integrated Web Portal for Medical Registration of Doctors in National Medical Register by NMC