Soon, electronic synchronization of National Medical Register with State Medical Register under NMC

With this, a centralised list will be maintained under the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act comprising of registered medical practitioners possessing recognised medical qualifications enrolled in the State Register and National Medical Register as well as a list of professionals possessing medical qualifications from outside India and permitted to practice in India for a limited period.

Medical Dialogues has repeatedly raised various issues that are plaguing the health sector with medical practitioners across the country coming out of council registrations, including duplicate registrations across various states, renewal of registrations, as well as that the growing menace of fake medical practitioners. With the states maintaining their own registers and sharing the records with apex medical regulator, which due to duplicate registrations is not able to compile the same, there is no accurate answer to the question of the exact number of doctors practising in India.

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Recently, the issue was recently was also raised in Parliament wherein the Health Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey was asked about the total number of doctors currently registered in the Indian Medical Register as well as whether there is any name on the said register who has passed away or retired from service and the breakup thereof. It was also questioned as to why these names have not been removed from the register and by when does the Government plan to remove them from the register.

On the said queries, the Minister replied, "As informed by the National Medical Commission (NMC), as of 31.12.2020, there are 12,89,337 doctors registered in the Indian Medical Register (IMR)."

He informed that the maintenance of the IMR was prescribed under Section 21 of the erstwhile Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. The IMR contains the name of the doctors registered with the State Medical Council in the State Medical Register. It is for the State Medical Councils to regularly update the register being maintained by it and the information in this regard is not maintained by the National Medical Commission (NMC), he informed the Parliament members.

The minister added that the erstwhile Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 has been repealed by the NMC Act, 2019 with effect from 25th September 2020. He elaborated that the NMC Act, 2019 provides for the maintenance of a National Register containing the details of licensed medical practitioners.

"The Act also provides for electronic synchronization of the National Register and the State Register in such a manner that any change in one register is automatically reflected in the other register," the minister informed.