In
view of widespread criticism of the workings of the Medical Council of India
included in the 92nd Report of Department-Related Parliamentary
Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare, presented to the Rajya Sabha
on 8th March 2016, the Government of India appointed a committee
under the chairmanship of Vice Chairman, NITI Aayog on 28th March
2016. The Committee, which included Additional Principal Secretary to Prime
Minister, CEO, NITI Aayog and Secretary, H&FW as Members, was asked to
examine all options for reforms in the Medical Council of India and suggest the
way forward.
The Committee
has completed the first stage of its work and is today posting its preliminary
report on the NITI Aayog website (http://niti.gov.in/).
Stakeholders are invited to offer their comments and suggestions. These may be
sent to dirhealth-niti@nic.in .
The preliminary
report includes a draft Bill intended to replace the current Indian Medical
Council Act, 1956. Main Features of the Proposed Bill are as under:
1. Regulators
of highest standards of professional integrity and excellence must be appointed
through an independent and a transparent selection process by a broad-based
Search cum Selection Committee.
2. A
New Institutional Architecture for Regulation has been suggested with (i) A Medical
Advisory Council (MAC) having representation from the States and Union
Territories (UTs) to articulate the national agenda for medical education; (ii)
the National Medical Commission (NMC), which is to serve as the policy-making
body for medical education; and (iii) four autonomous Boards charged Under
Graduate Medical Education, Post Graduate Medical Education, Medical Assessment
and Rating and Registration and Ethics.
3. Since it has
been felt that the input based regulatory philosophy underlying the current MCI
has turned into a high entry barrier, the NMC regulation is to be
overwhelmingly based on outcomes rather than inputs. The Committee has
proposed periodic publication of ratings of medical institutions.
4. The Committee
has also proposed that NMC be empowered to fix norms for regulating fees for a
proportion of seats in private medical colleges while allowing the promoters to
fix the fees for the remainder of seats transparently. No fees other than
clearly announced on the website of the college should be permitted.
5. The committee
proposes to provide a statutory basis for common entrance examination for
admissions to under-graduate and post-graduate courses in Medical institutions and
a Common Licentiate Examination for practice by medical professionals after
completion of the undergraduate medical degree.
6. The Committee
recommends that ‘for- profit’ organizations be permitted to establish medical
colleges.
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