New Delhi: A new era has heralded the country’s medical education. The Medical Commission of India (MCI), which has been in charge of medical education for the last 64 years, has completely disappeared. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has been formed in its place, which has started functioning from Friday. Along with this, four autonomous boards regulating various aspects of medical education have also been formed. Late Thursday, a notification was issued to abolish the MCI and the Board of Governors constituted under its supervision and the formation of NMC and autonomous boards. Dr. Suresh Chandra Sharma, former head of the Department of ENT of Delhi AIIMS, has been made the first chairman of NMC. He will remain the chairman for three years.
Apart from this, Rakesh Kumar Vats, Secretary General of the Board of Governors of the defunct MCI, has been made the secretary of NMC. NMC will be responsible for the recognition and quality of medical colleges in the country. The new NMC has four separate autonomous boards formed to look at different dimensions of medical education in the framework. The responsibility of supervising the medical education of graduates and PGs is divided into separate boards. Similarly, separate boards have been formed to look into the work of evaluation and rating and conduct and registration. All four board members have been made ex-officio members of NMC.
The aim is to prevent the centralization of power with a single person, to prevent corruption like MCI from taking root. It is worth noting that the MCI, formed in 1956, was surrounded by allegations of corruption for the past few decades. Instead of promoting medical education according to the needs of the country, MCI was being considered as the biggest obstacle in its path. Considering the seriousness of the allegations, the Supreme Court constituted the Oversight Committee to oversee the functioning of MCI. But the Oversight Committee resigned, accusing the MCI of not being supportive.
In view of MCI’s obstinate attitude, the government suspended the MCI in September 2018 and replaced it with a Board of Governors. Which until the formation of NMC was entrusted to the Board of Governors for the regulation of medical education. It dissolved spontaneously with the formation of NMC. At the same time, Parliament passed the NMC Bill in September last year to replace MCI. Now NMC has been formed a year after it became law.
