Medical Education in Jeopardy: 40 medical colleges lose NMC recognition over non-compliance, 100 more under scanner

New Delhi: In a major crackdown over non-compliance to its mandated standards for imparting medical courses, the apex medical regulatory body, National Medical Commission (NMC) has so far de-recognised around 40 medical colleges in the last two months. According to officials familiar with the matter, about 100 other medical institutes are presently under the scanner and are likely to face the NMC axe soon.

With the NEET and NEET PG counselling approaching ahead, the loss of recognition is likely to hamper the MBBS and PG medical admissions process.

Speaking to the news agency ANI on this overhaul, the official sources informed, “The action was taken on account of these institutions not complying with norms as well as lapses pertaining to faculty and security (CCTV) cameras.”

“About 40 medical colleges have lost recognition over the last one to two months period for not meeting the standards set by the NMC… A further 100 medical colleges in Puducherry, Gujarat, Assam, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu are also likely to lose recognition for not complying with the NMC's standards,” they stated.

“One of these medical colleges in Arunachal Pradesh, which is more than a century old, also lost recognition as part of the crackdown by the NMC,” the sources added.

NMC warning unnoticed?

The NMC has been repeatedly asking all the medical colleges to implement Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System, AEBAS at their premises to regularly capture the attendance of human resources as specified in the regulations. The guidelines were issued, and reiterated several times along with a warning that strict action shall be taken against such medical colleges and institutes including de-recognition, denial in increase of UG/PG seats etc.

Also Read: NMC reiterates Guidelines for implementing Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System in Medical Colleges

The medical commission had also pulled up the medical colleges over not transferring AEBAS attendance IDs of faculty in a timely manner.

Medical Dialogues had recently reported that the state of Tamil Nadu has lost around 650 seats after the NMC found deficiencies in the biometric attendance and cameras to be "not satisfactory". Three medical colleges include Government Stanley Medical College Hospital in Chennai, K A P Viswanathan Government Medical College in Trichy and Government Dharmapuri Medical College and Hospital. The intake capacity in these three medical colleges is 500 MBBS seats. Whereas, Puducherry-based Indira Gandhi Medical College and Research Institute (IGMCRI) lost the recognition over the lack of the required number of faculty and resident doctors as well as the non-implementation of Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) and installation/functioning of cameras as well.

Also Read:No NMC Recognition for 3 Medical Colleges, Tamil Nadu to lose 500 MBBS Seats

Moreover, the NMC has revoked the recognition to Hyderabad-based Mediciti Institute of Medical Sciences, cancelling admissions to the MBBS course for the 2023-24 academic year. The NMC in its annual inspection of infrastructure facilities, accessibility to students and staff, postings and student-patient ratios, among other criteria, found the college to have violated a few norms.

Careers in danger!

Fearing that loss of recognition will endanger their careers, some doctors have also written to the Union Health Ministry on the action taken by the NMC citing the non-compliance of standards are other lapses by these institutions. In their letter, the doctors voiced fears that the action could affect their careers and also result in a loss of credibility.

Provisional Registration

Amidst this move, the NMC has already offered relief to medical students who have cleared their final year MBBS examinations and waiting to get enrolled in the mandatory internship programme due to the pending recognition status of their medical colleges, by allowing them all provisional registration in the concerned State Medical Council.

With the relief from NMC, now these medical graduates will be able to get provisional registration in the State Medical Councils and enroll for the mandatory internship in their parent institutes, irrespective of the recognition status of their concerned medical colleges.

MBBS and PG Medical seats in India:

According to government data, there are a total of 101,043 MBBS, 45,471 MD, MS and PG Diploma, 4,997 DM and MCh seats available across 660 medical colleges in India.

MoS Health further mentioned that there is an increase of 71% in Medical Colleges from 387 before 2014 to 660 as of now. Further, there is an increase of 97% in MBBS seats from 51,348 before 2014 to 101,043 as of now, out of which 52,778 are available in Government Medical Colleges (GMCs) and 48,265 seats are available in Private Medical Colleges.

In addition, there is an increase of 110% in PG and SS seats from a combined total of 31,185 before 2014 to 65,335 as of now, which includes, 13,246 Diplomate of National Board (DNB) / Fellowship of National Board (FNB) PG seats and 1621 PG seats in College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS).

In December 2022, the aggregate stood at 96,077 MBBS and 49,790 Postgraduate medical seats. Since then, the Government has increased the number of medical colleges and subsequently increased MBBS as well as the PG medical seats.