NEW DELHI: The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has come out strongly against the recently notified National Medical Commission (NMC) Act and the National Education Policy (NEP), saying that these promote “quackery” and “hybrid doctors”.
The association has said all the concerns of the profession and the people have been brushed aside in the NMC Act, adding that the proclamation of NEP by the Centre will further legalise “official quackery” and create “generations of polypathy doctors”.
According to the IMA, the act remains “anti-people and anti-poor”.
“The NMC will maintain a parallel register of practitioners euphemistically called Community Health Providers,” said a statement by the country’s largest body of doctors.
“They are an assorted group of persons connected with the modern scientific medical profession. They can be anyone from laboratory technicians to optometrists.”
The association has expressed apprehension that they will be provided with a license to practise medicine in primary care.
“This will include a wide range of diseases and maternity. If they are overseen by another community health provider, they can practise inside ICUs, operation theatres, emergencies, labour rooms and anywhere in the secondary and critical care.”
This single clause 32 will cost India millions of lives, said the IMA, adding that letting loose half and partially trained non-medical persons to treat patients is “crime against humanity”, the IMA said.
The association criticised the adopted NEP saying that it forms the platform for chaos in medical education.
“It abolishes dedicated health universities,” it said.