National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill proposes to overhaul the medical administration in the country.
The government is hence said to be considering significant amendments to the Bill - based on the recommendations of the parliamentary committee.
What is NMC bill?
NMC Bill intends to replace “Medical Council of India” (MCI) with “National Medical Commission” (NMC), as the chief regulator for medical education.
The initial draft of the bill became highly controversial due to the sweeping changes that it proposed – which saw set of intense debates.
Hence, it is said that the government is considering making changes to some significant provisions in the original bill.
What are the significant aspects of the bill?
Exit Exam
It has been proposal to adapt the final MBBS examination into a National Exit Test (NEXT), in order to ensure a standardised potency for practice.
The present MBBS curriculum is said to be more theoretical in its approach to learning and assessment, and breeds memory based studying.
As there is little attention is paid to testing conceptual soundness and problem solving ability – a standardised exit exam might help in overcoming these.
While the exact structure of the proposed NEXT isn’t clear, it is expected to be a mix of “descriptive and multiple choice questions”.
Such standardised and quality testing is likely to nudge universities to improve their quality of teaching and assessment.
Significantly, the bill needs further clarity is the provisions for students to retake the exam in case of failure (or needing score improvement).
Integrating Medical Streams
There are nearly 7,70,000 qualified AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homeopathy) doctors in the country.
A bride course was initially proposed for AYUSH practitioners to hand out allopathic medication – but this evoked the strongest protests.
Including AYUSH doctors to the allopathic pool will enhance India’s doctor-patient ratio to a decent 1:1000 – but there are inherent risks in such moves.
A mere bridge course for AYUSH doctors to permit them practice modern medicine is a threat to the very integrity of our medical landscape.
Hence, this idea is likely to be scrapped, although some AYUSH doctors serving in remote areas currently do provide for limited allopathic drugs.
Addressing Quackery
Nearly 70% of primary care in rural India is provided by informal providers, and quackery is indeed rampant.
Considering the pathetic shortage of medical practitioners, can be potentially useful resources if they are institutionalised with considerable safeguards.
They can be trained under short-term courses to create medical assistants entrusted with primary curative, and preventive care.
