Top NMC posts lying vacant for months- Check out Health Ministry update

New Delhi: All the posts of the National Medical Commission (NMC) except the post of the Chairperson of the Commission and the President of the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) are still lying vacant, a Right to Information (RTI) application has revealed. Providing update on the appointment, the Health Ministry has stated that "The process of appointment of eligible candidate to vacant post in NMC is under consideration."

Kerala-based health activist Dr. K V Babu filed the RTI application seeking the details of the names of those who applied for the various posts of NMC, the status of the appointment, and also the details of the posts lying vacant.

As per the details provided by the Union Health Ministry, in response to the RTI application, the posts of NMC Secretary, the Presidents of the NMC Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB), and Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) are lying vacant.

Apart from these, the posts of whole-time and part-time members of the NMC Autonomous Boards- UGMEB, PGMEB, MARB and EMRB are also vacant.

These posts fell vacant in September 2024 and even though the Union Health Ministry invited applications to fill up these posts in August 2024, the appointments for these posts are yet to be made.

Also Read: Top NMC posts still lying vacant! Here's what Health Ministry said

Medical Dialogues had earlier reported that last year, the Union Health Ministry had invited applications to fill up vacant posts in the four Autonomous Boards of NMC. Applications were invited for the posts of President, Secretary, and members of the Commission, along with the key positions in the four boards under the NMC.

Previously, responding to an RTI application filed by Dr. Babu, the Health Ministry had informed that 10 out of the 19 positions at the National Commission were lying vacant.

Now, as per the recent reply by the Ministry, it is clear that apart from the Chairperson and the President of the PG Medical Education Board of NMC, all other posts in the Commission are lying vacant.

Speaking to Medical Dialogues regarding the issue, Dr. Babu told Medical Dialogues, "The NMC took charge on 25th september 2020 & it is clear that the term of Chairman/presidents /full-time members are four years till the age of 70. Though the MoH invited applications for the vacant posts well in advance in June 2023 earlier, the appointments of some of the posts were completed only in July 2024, after more than one year."

"With such a background, the MoH should have invited applications for the vacant posts of Sept 2024 well in advance. Instead, they invited applications only in August 2024. This led to vacant chairs of most of the posts in the autonomous boards!" he added.

Dr. Babu further mentioned, "Now the NMC instead of functioning as an autonomous institution regulating medical education is apparently run directly by the Govt."

In the RTI application, Dr. Babu also sought the details of the names of those who applied for various posts at NMC and the status of the appointment. However, the Ministry said, "The details of the applicant cannot be provided under the Section 8(1)(d) of the RTI Act as the requested information pertains to third-party information."

"The process of appointment of eligible candidate to vacant post in NMC is under consideration," it added.

Also Read: Top NMC Posts Lying Vacant, Govt Invites Applications