Govt. Likely to Introduce Bill to Replace MCI in Ongoing Parliament Session

The government is planning to place the Bill which seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with National Medical Commission (NMC) before the Parliament in the ongoing Winter Session. The National Medical Commission Bill, 2016, has been finalised by Niti Aayog and it will be placed before the Parliament in the current session.

As of now, the Bill has to be approved by the Cabinet after which it will be put before Parliament. The proposal for replacing MCI with NMC was made earlier this year where a high-level committee was set up, i.e., Niti Aayog. Arvind Panagariya headed the committee who looked into the issue of poor regulation of medical education by MCI and recommended to replace MCI with NMC.

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The committee or panel also included P.K. Mishra, Prime Minister’s Additional Principal Secretary, Amitabh Kanth, CEO of Niti Aayog. The committee was formed to suggest reforms in the Indian Medical Councils (IMC) Act, 1957.

If the Parliament approves the Bill, NMC will become the regulatory body and will take overall roles and responsibilities of MCI. The new governing body will have eminent doctors and experts and prominent doctors from related fields to steer medical education in the country to ensure the quality of education is at par with global standards.

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The proposed NMC will have 19-20 members including a chairman and his/her tenure would be five years. The commission will also have members from other fields such as law and economics.

NMC will also consist of four boards which include Undergraduate Medical Board, Accreditation and Assessment Board, Postgraduate Medical Board and Board for registration of medical colleges as well as monitoring of ethics in the profession.