After a long wait, the cabinet has approved the National Medical Commission Bill 2019(NMC). The bill aims at overhauling the systems in medical education in India and replace the Medical Council of India with a National Medical Commission.
The Bill will reduce the cost of private medical education, ease the burden of entrance exams on students and create a mid-level health cadre with limited rights to prescribe drugs.
The bill proposes reforms such as a common final year MBBS exam as National Exit Test(NEXT), which will serve as a licentiate exam for entrance to postgraduate medical courses and as a screening test for foreign medical graduates. The Bill provides that the NEET, NEXT and common counselling will also be applicable for the Institutes of National importance (INI’s) such as AIIMS. The commission will also regulate fees and other charges for 50% seats in the private medical colleges and deemed universities. According to government sources, these measures would ensure a transparent admission process along with regulating the fees.
The NMC will have four autonomous boards, namely Under-Graduate Medical Education Board, Post-Graduate Medical Education Board, Medical Assessment and Rating Board and Ethics and Medical Registration Board. The new NMC Bill will also create a new cadre of non-MBBS, mid-level health service providers like nursing practitioners and pharmacists with limited rights to dispense medicines.
“The NMC and respective boards will ensure a dynamic and modern educational environment, decreasing the emphasis on physical infrastructure, achieving the norms in global standards and an effective grievance redressal mechanism,” reads a government statement.

Source: Times of India, The Tribune.

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