NMC spells out End of PG Diploma Courses at medical colleges

The draft guidelines clearly specify that no new PG Diploma courses shall be permitted from the year 2021 onwards.

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that the National Medical Commission (NMC) released the Draft Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations 2021. The Draft focused on various aspects of PG courses, Selection of PG students, Common Counseling process as envisaged by NMC among others.

The guidelines while noting some points for the conduct of the course and exam for the existing running PG courses clearly specify that no new Diploma PG courses would be permitted from the next year.

Section 19 of the Guidelines has mentioned,

"No new Diploma courses shall be permitted from 2021 onwards. All the Rules and Regulations of erstwhile MCI regarding existing Diploma courses shall be applicable till all the Diploma courses are phased out and the last Diploma candidate has cleared the examination."

Also Read: NEXT to be gateway to PG medical admissions, score will be valid for 3 years: NMC new draft guidelines

The move of the NMC is in consonance of the move of the government to scrap the PG Diploma courses offered at medical colleges. The Central Government as well as the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI) has made several efforts in the past two years to end the MCI recognized PG Diploma Courses and convert the same into full-fledged MD/MS degree. Many a times in the last few years the Union Health Ministry has invited applications for conversion of PG diploma seats.

The move to convert Diploma Courses into full-fledged MD/MS had its own reasoning. Medical colleges now have to follow stringent requirements for any post-graduate courses -be a 2-year Diploma or 3-year MD/MS. However, the benefits were very different as while the two streams of students studied the same common course for two years, under the same faculty and guidance, the diploma students faced a severe drawback in terms of employment, as well as ineligibility for academic positions in their career.

Hence despite of their 2-year course from a medical college, the Diploma Doctors, who have been working at various medical colleges and performing the duties of specialists are still being paid on par with MBBS doctors. MCI, noting the issue as well as taking in partly the recommendations of the parliamentary committee, abolished diploma courses & asked medical colleges to surrender their diploma seats & get an equal number of MD/MS seats. But, another part of the recommendations (existing medical professionals with diploma degrees working for two years in medical colleges should be awarded degree after submission of thesis) is not yet implemented, drawing objections from around 50,000 existing diploma passouts, who have demanded a degree conversion to MD/MS.

While the issue of degree conversion of the existing students still stands, it is clear from the current guidelines that the NMC does not intend to offer any new diploma courses at medical colleges.

NBE Diploma- New Alternative

While the MCI, as well as NMC, are focused on scrapping PG Diploma courses from medical colleges, the National Board of Examination (NBE) last year announced the launch of a two-year PG diploma course. As per the NBE, diploma courses were first launched in 8 Specializations, including Anesthesiology, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Paediatrics, Family Medicine, Ophthalmology, Otorhinolaryngology (ENT), Radio-Diagnosis, and Tuberculosis & Chest Disease.