NEW DELHI: After getting Parliamentary nod to GST Bill, the Narendra Modi government has set eyes on the next big reform and is aiming to introduce the National Medical Council Bill in the upcoming Winter session of Parliament.
The NITI Aayog is keen on completing its process of “reform and revamp” in medical education in a bid to crackdown the “den of corruption” in the Medical Council of India (MCI).
NITI Aayog has studied about 9,000 public responses to the draft National Medical Council Bill, which was placed in the public domain a few months ago.
“We have studied the responses. We are determined to end the existing character of the MCI, which is a body of the representatives of those it seeks to regulate. All state governments except Tamil Nadu have extended their support,” said a senior official of the NITI Aayog, on condition of anonymity.
Incidentally, Tamil Nadu has conveyed to NITI Aayog that the Centre should not legislate on the issue of medical education, which should be left for the states.
“There were three broad categories of responses to the draft proposal. About 2,000 people submitted a one line response, saying that they completely reject the proposal. Another set of people argued that the Central government is seeking to commercialise medical education. The third category of responses demanded that the revamped body should include members on the basis of elections and not nomination,” added the NITI Aayog official.
“The government is clear that the National Medical Council (NMC) will be a body of nominated members, constituting 80 per cent medical professions and rest would be professionals, including chartered accountants, distinguished citizens. The Centre will nominate members for the NMC, while the state governments will do the same for its state level body, whose mandate will be to monitor the functioning of the medical colleges,” said the official.
The National Medical Council will issue registration numbers to MBBS doctors only after they clear the mandatory exit test, which will check theoretical knowledge and skills.
“The union government has no problems if corporate houses enter into medical education. The current scenario wherein we require 30 lakh doctors but only 50,000 of them graduate each year must end along with the standardisation of their quality,” added the NITI Aayog official.