Indian Health Sector has been suffering from the chronic problems: corruption in medical education, falling standards of ethics and governance in medical sector and shortage of doctors. As pointed out by Lodha Committee, NITI Aayog and Parliamentary Standing Committee, these problems are primarily attributed to faulty provisions of Indian Medical Council Act 1956. It gives Medical Council of India (MCI) disproportionate power in medical governance.
National Medical Commission Bill 2017 seeks to repeal the old act and establish new institutional framework for medical governance in India. However the Bill has been criticized for following:-
1) Unlike MCI, members of NMC are selected by government and not elected. Thus it gives government disproportionate power over medical governance.
2) Medical Advisory Councils are relegated to NMC. This also makes NMC a very powerful body.
3) Provision of Bridge course for AYUSH practitioners to practice allopathic will subject public health at risk.
However, these criticisms overlook the following provisions of NMC which will definitely improve medical governance: -
1) Uniform Medical Entrance exam through NEET will create level playing fields, bring uniformity, reduce corruption in admission and bring better public vigil.
2) There are autonomous boards under NMC which will:
(A) Regulate admission procedure in UG and PG courses.
(B) Set qualification standards
(C)Give accreditation to new medical colleges
(D) Respond to increasing demand of doctors by increasing seats in colleges
(E) Ensure the medical professional ethics in medicine.
3) Provision of bridge course will definitely address to the shortfall of doctors, especially in rural and remote areas. This could also be supplemented by allowing MBBS, Nurses and Paramedics to administer more treatments than they are currently allowed to do.
CONCLUSION:-
Repealing the old act and MCI is an absolute necessity. MCI has monopolized its position and set the number of doctors artificially low to create more value of profession. As pointed out by Parliamentary Standing Committee, a huge number of licenses have been given to substandard medical college and allowed them to fill seat not by principle of merit but by selling for crores of rupees. Despite of criticism, NMC bill does a lot to improve the medical governance in India.
