Medical education is in desperate need of transformation NMC Bill can bring it about
Parliament has a historic opportunity to not only save medical education from “total collapse” but also bring about a renaissance in the field. For the good of the nation, let us hope it successfully meets the challenge.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi appointed a committee under my chairmanship to draft a new regulatory bill to transform medical education in India, he was responding to a clarion call from Parliament.
In March 2016, a report by the Rajya Sabha-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare described in detail the rot that had set into medical education in India under the aegis of the Medical Council of India (MCI). It went on to call upon the government to bring about wholesale change in the way medical education is regulated.
In March 2016, a report by the Rajya Sabha-led Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare described in detail the rot that had set into medical education in India under the aegis of the Medical Council of India (MCI). It went on to call upon the government to bring about wholesale change in the way medical education is regulated.
The concluding paragraph of the Standing Committee Report is worth recalling here: “To sum up, the Committee observes … that the need for major institutional changes in the regulatory oversight of the medical profession in the country is so urgent that it cannot be deferred any longer. The Committee is, however, aware that any attempt at overhauling the regulatory framework will face huge challenges from the deeply entrenched vested interests who will try to stall and derail the entire exercise. But if the medical education system has to be saved from total collapse, the Government can no longer look the other way and has to exercise its constitutional authority … The Committee, therefore, exhorts the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to implement the recommendations made by it in this report immediately and bring a new comprehensive Bill in Parliament for this purpose at the earliest.”