UPSC Decode
Make it easier
Features of the bill
1. It seeks to improve the medical education system in India. Medical Commission to be set up at the national and state level.
2. Medical Advisory Council by the center. The council will act as a channel through which state/UT can convey their views and concerns to the National Medical Commission.
3. NEET for admission to undergraduate medical education in all medical institutions regulated under the bill.
4. National Exit Test for students graduating from medical institutions to obtain the license for the practice. The test will also allow students to take admission into postgraduate courses at medical institutions.
5. National Medical Commission will have authority to grant a limited license. This license can be given to mid-level practitioners connected with the modern medical profession.
6. National Medical Commission will have 25 members. Appointed by the central government on the recommendation of a committee.
7. National Medical Commission will frame guidelines for 50% seats of private institutions which are regulated under the bill.
8. Section 32 of the bill allows the government to allow non-medical degree holders to practice medicine as a community health provider.
9. National Medical Commission members, the chairperson can be removed only by the center.
10. National Medical Commission will also decide fees at some point.
11. National Medical Commission members have to declare assets + conflict of interest at the time of assuming office and when they leave.
Understanding more deep facts about the bill from trusted site click here.
Why opposition of National Medical Commission?
1. Doctors with a low qualification or non-medical degree will prescribe medicine. That may create huge problems.
2. Section 32 of the bill authorizes the government to allow non-medical degree holders to practice medicine as community health providers. This provision can legalize fake doctors in the country.
3. Allows the commission to “frame guidelines for determination of fees and all other charges in respect of fifty percent of seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be universities”. This increases the number of seats for which private institutes will have the discretion to determine fees. The center can use arbitrary powers in this case. At present, in such institutes, state governments decide fees for 85 percent of the seats.
4. Compared to the present 70 percent figure of elected representatives in the Medical Council of India (MCI), only 20 percent of members of the NMC will be elected representatives.
5. NMC Bill allows the commission’s ethics board to exercise jurisdiction over state medical councils on compliance related to ethical issues. This infringes state power afterall health is a state subject. Before this, MCI recommendations were not binding.
6. Also, while action can be taken against the MCI president only on the direction of a court, the NMC Bill enables the central government to remove the chairperson or any other member of the commission.
7. National Exit Test (NEXT) has been conceptualized as a single test, which will act as a common final-year undergraduate medical exam and be used for granting the medical license as well as admission to postgraduate courses. It has been argued that a single exam is being accorded too much weight, and it can hurt the career of medical aspirants.
8. The Bill allows the commission to “frame guidelines for determination of fees and all other charges in respect of fifty percent of seats in private medical institutions and deemed to be universities”. This increases the number of seats for which private institutes will have the discretion to determine fees. At present, in such institutes, state governments decide fees for 85 percent of the seats.