NMC withholds new MBBS rules, seeks public view

Aditi Tandon

New Delhi, June 23

In a dramatic development on Friday, apex medical education regulator National Medical Commission withheld the revised MBBS course regulations it had issued earlier this month and opened the document for public comments.

An order issued by Shambhu Sharan Kumar, Director of NMC’s Undergraduate Medical Education Board, said: “Undergraduate Medical Education Board proposes to make Competency-Based Medical Education Curriculum Regulations, 2023, in exercise of powers conferred by the NMC Act, 2019.

“A draft regulation in this regard is being shared for public comments. It is requested to share comments on the draft regulations within 30 days of the publication of this notice with a subject tagline Comments on draft regulations regarding NMC Competency Based Medical Education Curriculum Regulations 2023.”

The fresh order comes just days after the NMC published the revised MBBS curriculum in the gazette on June 2 and notified the same, saying it would be applicable to all admissions in medical colleges from 2023 to 2024 session and would supersede the 1997 regulations.

The regulations, which the NMC shared today for stakeholder comments, however are the same as it had published on June 2.

Sources said the NMC was completing the obligations of inviting public comments as the regulations proposed sweeping reforms in medical UG education, including a mandatory family adoption programme which entailed compulsory village visits for all MBBS students. The regulations make 80 % attendance on family adoption visits a must to write exams through the MBBS course.

The regulations also drop the grace marks practice and replace MBBS final year part 2 exam (third professional part 2) with the proposed National Exit Test by 2024.

The same regulations also propose more weightage to physics than biology in case of a tie in NEET-UG merit list.