House panel rejects exit exam, bridge course for Ayush experts

NEW DELHI: In a major setback to the government, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health examining the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017, rejected most of the revolutionary proposals of the Bill, including permission for cross-disciplinary practice and a national exit examination to test MBBS passouts before they are licensed to practise.

Aditi Tandon

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, March 20

In a major setback to the government, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health examining the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017, rejected most of the revolutionary proposals of the Bill, including permission for cross-disciplinary practice and a national exit examination to test MBBS passouts before they are licensed to practise.

The panel, in its report, on Tuesday rejected the government proposal to allow practitioners of traditional systems of AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga, Unani, Homeopathy ad Siddha) to practise modern medicine after taking a bridge course and said “the bridge course should not be made mandatory in the present Bill”.

To meet the shortage of doctors in rural areas and in general, the panel recommended, in a first, a mandatory rural posting of one year for all doctors and also said it should be compulsory for all doctors to serve in India for a notified time before they can go abroad and practise.

On the Bill’s proposal of a National Licentiate Exam (exit test) to be made compulsory for any MBBS doctor to make him eligible to practise medicine, the committee said, “This may debar a number of MBBS doctors from practising and may undermine the sanctity of the university exams.”

The panel, instead, said MBBS final year exam be considered a licentiate exam for the MBBS doctor and this exam should be initially conducted by respective states who can design it on their own. “Such an exam could later be extended to the whole country,” the panel said also rejecting the Health Ministry’s proposal to consider the licensiate exam as an entrance exam for postgraduate education.

“The PG National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Exam should continue as the main test for the PG entry till a mechanism is evolved in three to five years for the conduct of a final MBBS exam, which can also test students for the PG entry,” the panel said. It also rejected the Bill’s provision allowing the NMC to regulate fees for 40 per cent of the seats in private medical colleges across states and said such regulation should only apply to unregulated private and deemed universities.

The Bill seeks to replace the Medical Council of India with a new commission and provides for a minimal elected component to prevent manipulation. The committee, however, has questioned the Bill which provides for a 25-member NMC with only five elected members and said the NMC should be a 29-member body with nine elected ones.

On the ministry’s provision to create a bridge course to allow 7.71 lakh Ayush practitioners to get training for dispensing modern medicine, the panel said, “States may implement their own steps to enhance the capacity of existing professionals to address state-specific requirements.