Things that doctors have to say about dissolving MCI
The proposed National Medical Commission Bill (NMC Bill) which seeks to dissolve MCI has seen doctors across the nation protesting, terming it “an undemocratic move.” While that being the case, here are what some of the concerned doctors have to say about it.
‘Highly detrimental to budding doctors’
Dr Manish Prabhakar is the president of the Indian Medical Students’ Association. According to him if NMC is formed, it will be “undemocratic and highly detrimental to budding doctors, community and medical associations.”
‘It will cripple the functioning of the medical profession’
Dr KK Aggarwal is the national president elect, Indian Medical Association. And this is what he has to say:
“Scrapping MCI will cripple the functioning of the medical profession by making it completely answerable to the bureaucracy and non-medical administrators. Instead, the government must consider introducing amendments to the existing MCI Act to make it transparent, accountable, robust and self-sufficient.”
The doctor asserts that the autonomy of the regulatory body must be upheld.
‘How can we be sure that the new commission will function without any glitches and be corruption-free?’
Dr Arun Aggarwal is a former president, Delhi Medical Council and professor of excellence, Maulana Azard Medical College, Delhi. According to him:
“Replacing MCI with another regulatory body does not guarantee that the current issues in medical education will be resolved. How can we be sure that the new commission will function without any glitches and be corruption-free?”
‘The needs of medical profession have to be appropriately addressed while holding the professionals accountable’
This is what Dr. Bipin Batra, executive director, National Board of Examination(NBE) has to say:
“The Supreme Court in its judgment dated April 3, 2016, while placing an oversight committee for MCI, had mandated a period of one year for the government to undertake reforms in regulation of medical education and set up appropriate systems in place. The apex court will review the position in April 2017. The tenure of MCI will also be completed in a year’s time. Thus, achieving high growth in healthcare to meet the growing needs is an area of high priority. Reforms in medical education are necessitated and will have to be undertaken sooner than later. However, the needs of medical profession namely professional autonomy and identity have to be appropriately addressed while holding the professionals accountable.”
If not scrapping, then what else could be the solution?
While doctors across the country are being vocal against the move to scrap the MCI, there remains the question of what could be a possible solution to the problem of a lack of transparency and accountability in the system.
A couple of possible solutions that the experts put forward are the following:
- Create an accreditation authority for medical education. This authority could be along the lines of the All India Council for Technical Education for technological institutions.
- Vesting MCI with the authority to prescribe service conditions and payable scales for full-time teaching faculties in medical colleges on par with the UGC.
Image credits: ima-india.org