National Medical Commission to replace MCI, NITI Aayogm panel asks for comments

The Committee found itself in broad agreement with the recommendations of the 92nd Report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee and the Roy Choudhury Committee report on the need for a total overhaul of the regulatory framework and governance of medical education in India. In the spirit of the Roy Chaudhury Committee recommendations, the committee has therefore proposed that a National Medical Commission replace the current MCI with the new body having a markedly different structure and governance system.

The committee has clearly stated that  IMC Act 1956 should be repealed and replaced by a new Act providing for the National Medical Commission.

As the name suggests the bill calls for scrapping of  MCI  and creation of a NATIONAL MEDICAL COMMISSION to be the apex policy making body for regulating medical education in the country, which through the functioning of its four constituents boards will regulate the medical sector.  Besides this, a new Institutional Architecture for Regulation has been suggested in the bill with a Medical Advisory Council (MAC) having representation from the States and Union Territories (UTs) to articulate the national agenda for medical education.

The statement said that since it has been felt that the input based regulatory philosophy underlying the current MCI has turned into a high entry barrier, the NMC regulation is to be overwhelmingly based on outcomes rather than inputs.

The committee has proposed periodic publication of ratings of medical institutions.

It has also proposed that NMC be empowered to fix norms for regulating fees for a proportion of seats in private medical colleges while allowing the promoters to fix the fees for the remainder of seats transparently. No fees other than clearly announced on the website of the college should be permitted.

The committee proposed to provide a statutory basis for common entrance examination for admissions to undergraduate and postgraduate courses in Medical institutions and a Common Licentiate Examination for practice by medical professionals after completion of the undergraduate medical degree.

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