Professors, Associate professors from all government medical colleges can now become assessors for NMC inspection

New Delhi: The professors and associate professors from Government Medical Colleges can be made Assessors and Experts of the National Medical Commission and at that time, the institutes are required to relieve them, the apex medical education regulatory body recently stated.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year, the NMC had asked for nominations from the institutes. In that letter, NMC had excluded non-medical faculty from the panel of experts who form NMC assessors of various courses of medical colleges.

Confirming the same, the former President Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of the NMC had written to various medical colleges asking them to nominate assessors.

"We are reaching out to you for your support and participation in the process of updating the list of eligible Under Graduate (UG) / Post Graduate (PG) / Super Speciality (SS) assessors. This will help us to conduct the assessments within the stipulated timeframe," the letter had stated.

The letter asked the medical colleges to nominate the faculty in their institution for this purpose, explicitly pointing out to exclude non-medical faculty. "I request you that as an esteemed ambassador of the profession and a conscious keeper of excellence in medical education, you nominate faculty in your institution at the earliest," Dr Gulati had stated in his letter

"I am requesting you to fill the annexed "Declaration Form" with details of UG / PG / SS assessors in your institute.......You are requested to submit details of all Associate Professors (with 6 years of teaching experience), Additional Professors & Professors( please do not include non-medical faculty) and are interested in being NMC assessors," the letter had mentioned.

However, now the NMC has notified that professors and associate professors from all Government Medical Colleges can be made Assessors and Experts of the National Medical Commission at any point of time for inspection of medical colleges and whenever they are assigned any NMC duties, the colleges have to relieve them immediately.

The Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued a circular in this regard and informed all the government medical institutes about this decision.

"It is bring to kind notice of all Government Medical Colleges that Professor/ Associate Professor from Government Medical Colleges are deputed as Assessors/ Experts by NMC," read the circular issued by Dr. J.L. Meena, Member of MARB.

"Whenever any Professor/ Associate Professor is assigned NMC duty in that case Medical Colleges are requested to relieve them immediately," further added the NMC circular dated November 29, 2022.

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What is the purpose of a medical college assessor?

The role of the Assessor in establishing the standards of medical education cannot be overemphasized. The Commission's decisions regarding, permission to start/increase seats and recognition of postgraduate courses are made based on the report submitted by the assessors. Hence, the Assessor is the eye of National Medical Commission and the assessment report should be such that the competent authority can clearly take its decision on whether minimum standard requirements are met or not. Assessor are a medical teacher, with experience and knowledge regarding the needs and complexities of a medical teaching institution.

However, the assessment of a college/institution for regulatory purposes is a specific activity that involves verification that the establishment has the minimum standard requirements. These refer to the adequacy of clinical material, teaching faculty & infrastructure. The final opinion based on your experience will be important for taking the decision and should be unbiased. Assessments must be evidenced based. Proof in the form of Evidence Sheet signed by Principal/Dean with relevant photographs taken from your camera (Mobile Phone etc.) (even if the assessment is video graphed) will substantiate your findings. All infrastructure must be carefully verified.

To view the NMC circular, click on the link below:

https://medicaldialogues.in/pdf_upload/nmc-circular-192505.pdf

Also Read: NMC excludes non-MBBS faculty from the panel of medical college assessors