Niti Aayog to soon come out with draft bill on medical regulator

New Delhi: Niti Aayog is working on a bill to streamline regulatory framework for medical institutes and replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a new body. The bill, which seeks to set up a National Medical Commission (NMC), will be placed before the Cabinet for approval soon. “The Niti Aayog is working on the proposed National Medical Commission Bill, 2016 and it is likely to be placed before the Cabinet soon,” a senior government official said.

Last year, a high-level committee headed by Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya looked into the issue of poor regulation of medical education by MCI and proposed replacing MCI with NMC.

Besides Panagariya, the panel included Prime Minister’s Additional Principal Secretary P K Mishra, Niti Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant and the Union Health Secretary.

After approval, NMC will become the main regulatory body and will take over all roles and responsibilities of MCI.

The new body will have eminent doctors and experts from related fields to steer medical education in the country so as to ensure quality of education is at par with global standards.

NMC will have around 19-20 members, including the chairman, and their tenure will be about five years. It will also have members from other fields such as economics and law.

It will have four boards — Under Graduate Medical Board, Post Graduate Medical Board, Accreditation and Assessment Board and a board for registration of medical colleges as well as monitoring of ethics in the profession.

There will also be a Medical Advisory Council (MAC), with members from states who can be eminent professionals. There will be two members from Union Territories. NMC members will also be its members and its role will be advisory.

Last year, a parliamentary committee had called for revamping the MCI, saying it has failed in its role as a regulator which has led to a downfall in India’s medical education system.