Medical Commission Bill encourages quackery, complain doctors, IMA and medical students

With the passage of the National medical Commission Bill, 2019 through the Rajya Sabha on Friday by a voice vote, it awaits the assent of the President to become law. But even before the Rajya Sabha passed the Bill, the Lok Sabha having passed it earlier, doctors and medical students across the country held demonstrations to protest the provisions. Several doctors were detained by police while they were marching towards the Parliament.

The Bill repeals the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and sets up a National Medical Council of India comprising 25 members appointed by the central government.

Other salient features of the Act include holding of a common final year MBBS exam known as the National Exit Test (NEXT), which will then serve as a licentiate exam for entrance to PG medical courses and as a screening test for foreign medical graduates, under Section 15 of the new Act.

Calling the Bill “draconian", Dr Santanu Sen, Member of Parliament, a medical practitioner and national president of the IMA, told NH that the entire medical fraternity was outraged by its passage of the Bill through Parliament.

Dr Sen said that the Bill violated the federal structure of the Constitution, is anti-poor and virtually legalised quackery in rural India.

“In the existing Medical Council of India, there was a provision for electing office bearers by the members in all the states. Following this new Act, there will be no elections to the newly-formed body, NMC, whose members will be simply selected and nominated by the central government,” he said.

“This also makes it anti-federal in nature, more so since the Bill was framed in such a way that various states could get representation only after decades. We were able to force some amendments which at least addresses this last issue, and now each state will be able to get representation every year,” he told National Herald.

“The Bill is anti-poor since in our country, 50 per cent of medical colleges are in the private sector. The Bill states that 50 per cent of the seats will be ‘free for sale’ and for the rest, the NMC would be fixing up the criteria but not the fee. There is no capping of fee, and the NMC has total discretion in fixing up these so-called criteria. So, any poor but meritorious student who is unable to make it to a government medical college will not be able to afford admission to a private medical college. Only those from rich families will benefit,” he said.

“So, while the government claimed that the Bill is anti-corruption, they are simply shutting one gate and opening another one. It will lead to corporatisation of medical education in the country, and mushrooming of private medical colleges across the country. Further, inspection of medical colleges is now discretionary, which means anyone can open a private medical college, admit students by charging capitation fee in Crores and since their inspection may happen only two years or three years down the line, the promotors may simply abandon the project and disappear with the money. And what will happen to the students? They may end up committing suicide,” he added.

“Worst of all, Section 32 of the NMC Bill provides for licensing of 3.5 lakh and odd unqualified non-medical persons to practise modern medicine. The term ‘community health provider’ has been vaguely defined to allow anyone ‘connected with modern medicine’ to get registered in NMC and be licensed to practice modern medicine. This means even a paramedic like a blood sample collector may also get to prescribe medicines. Further, they will not be accountable to anyone,” he said.

He did not rule out the possibility of the IMA moving the court if the concerns are not addressed.

A scathing press release was also made available on Friday to National Herald by ‘Progressive Medicos & Scientists Front’, an organisation of medical practitioners.

“The road to hell, they say, is paved with gold; likewise, there are plenty of flowery phrases, concerns and platitudes to health care needs in the Bill that has now been passed by both the houses of the parliament. “

“The bill talks of developing ‘competency based dynamic curriculum at undergraduate level’; of ‘addressing the needs of primary health services, community medicine and family medicine’; of ‘quality and standards to be maintained in medical education’; of “regulating professional conduct and promoting medical ethics’, and the like.”

“It would however be naïve to take these words on face value in as much as their true import is coloured by the overall context of among the most privatised, iniquitous, unjust, for profit health care system in India which sends more than sixty million Indians below one of the stingiest poverty lines in the world. None of these attributes is intended to be reversed by any of the provisions of this Bill,” the statement noted.