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

The Preliminary Report and the draft NATIONAL MEDICAL COMMISSION BILL, 2016 is placed for seeking public opinion. Please send comments/suggestions/feedback on the draft bill latest by 31 st August, 2016 through e-mail only at dirhealth-niti@gov.in.

New Delhi: As a major first step to introduce reforms to the Medical education in the country, NITI Ayog has now come out a draft NATIONAL MEDICAL COMMISSION BILL, 2016, which aims at the reforms of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. The committee has now placed the bill under the public domain asking for public comments. Following this, the draft bill will be finalized and would be tabled in Parliament earliest in the winter session.

With the news of rampant corruption at the Medical Council of India,  the apex medical regulator, doing rounds on a daily basis , the central government appointed a special panel to overhaul the reforms of the medical sector of the. The Committee on the Reform of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 comprising
i. Shri Arvind Panagariya, Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog,
ii. Shri P.K. Mishra, Additional Principal Secretary to Prime Minister
iii. Shri Amitabh Kant, Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog
iv. Sh. B.P Sharma, Former Health Secretary and Sh. C.K Mishra, Secretary, H&FW
have now  prepared the NATIONAL MEDICAL COMMISSION BILL, 2016 after examining all options for reforms in the Medical Council of India, further placing it in the public domain for approval.

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The committee has clearly stated that  IMC Act 1956 should be repealed and replaced by a new Act providing for the National Medical Commission.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