Bill replacing MCI sent to standing committee now

Aditi Tandon 

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, January 2

The government today cited representations from doctors and MPs to refer the revolutionary National Medical Commission Bill 2017 to a parliamentary panel and sought its early report.

Although listed for consideration and passing today in the Lok Sabha, the Bill was sent to the parliamentary standing committee on health with Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar making the announcement in the House, while also urging the committee to present its report before the commencement of the Budget Session.

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This means the government has given the committee time up to January 31 to present the report. The Bill seeks to scrap the doctor- dominated Medical Council of India and set up a new regulator called the National Medical Commission, which will be more broad- based in selecting members.

The NMC will have four autonomous boards to handle four medical education sectors — undergraduate education, postgraduate education, medical ethics and college accreditation. At present, the MCI is in charge of all four, with the government seeking to unshackle the “over-regulated sector”.

The Bill ends annual inspections of colleges every time they want to add MBBS or PG seats and expects institutions to show compliance with pre-drafted regulatory standards. The idea is to enable more institutions to come up and shift the focus from infrastructure-based monitoring of colleges to outcome-based.

The Bill mandates a National Licensiate Exam (exit exam) for MBBS passouts, who can practice medicine only if they pass the test. The thinking is — testing the quality of the medical graduate will automatically test the quality of his institution.

The Indian Medical Association is against the exit exam and the scrapping of MCI, which is comprised mainly of doctors who are elected by peers. 

NMC, on the other hand, will be mainly constituted through selections with only five of its 25 members proposed to be elected.

IMA had called a strike today to oppose the NMC Bill, which also provides for regulating fees in 40 per cent seats in private medical colleges. 

A delegation of doctors even met TMC leaders today seeking deferment of the Bill. 

Several politicians across parties are wary of the Bill because they have stakes in most private medical colleges.

Health Minister JP Nadda is, however, hopeful that the Bill will be passed in the Budget Session. 

The Government is getting strength from the fact that the first suggestion to scrap the MCI had come from the parliamentary standing committee on health itself. 

The committee in its 92nd report slammed the MCI for corruption and concluded that the Council had not lived up to its mandate under the Indian Medical Council Act 1956.