The Ministry of Health circulated a Cabinet memorandum on the 2016 National Medical Commission bill proposing to reorganize the Medical Council of India (MCI). The bill, based on the recommendations of the committee of experts Niti Aayog appointed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year, proposes to create the commission in place of MCI.
It aims to reform the medical education sector which has been under scrutiny for corruption and unethical practices.
Under the bill, the Commission will consist of a Chair, nine ex officio members and ten part-time members who will be selected rather than elected. Currently, MCI members are elected members.
The government has already introduced the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for medical and dental undergraduate and postdoctoral students. Once the bill has been approved by Cabinet and passed as legislation by Parliament, it will replace the Indian Medical Council Act of 1956 and create the Commission as the primary regulator of medical education.
"We are awaiting comments from various ministries. There is in-principal approval on the draft. We hope to soon take it to the Cabinet for approval," a senior official said.
The draft bill also proposes to have separate boards for regulating under graduate courses, post graduate, accreditation and assessment board and a board for registration of medical colleges as well as monitoring of ethics in the profession. Besides, it also proposes a Medical Advisory Council (MAC), with members from states who can be eminent professionals such as a professors from a medical colleges and the like. There will be two members from Union Territories. NMC members will also be its members and its role will be advisory.
Last year, a high-level committee chaired by Niti Aayog, Vice-chairman Arvind Panagariya, discussed the issue of poor regulation of medical education by MCI and proposed to replace MCI with NMC. In addition to Panagariya, the panel included the Deputy Principal Secretary to Prime Minister P K Mishra, the CEO of Niti Aayog Amitabh Kant and the Union health secretary.
The committee was formed to suggest reforms in the IMC Act, 1956. The 92nd parliamentary committee on health had also raised concerns about the functioning of the MCI and called for reform of the medical education sector.
