The Medical Council of India (MCI) was established in the year 1934 under the Indian Medical Council Act of 1933. The main function of MCI is to establish a uniform standard of higher qualifications in medicine and recognition of medical qualifications in India and abroad. MCI is the only medical organization in India that is responsible for the recognition of medical institutions. Thus, there are lots of Government medical universities overseas recognized by MCI.
MCI was established in 1934 under the Indian Medical Council (IMC) Act, 1933. The old Act was repealed in 1956 and a new act was enacted in its place. The new act was further modified in 1964, 1993, and 2001. Recently, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI), as per the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
The purpose of the NMC Act, 2019, is to provide for a medical education system that improves access to quality and affordable medical education, ensures availability of adequate and high-quality medical professionals in all parts of the country; promotes equitable and universal healthcare that encourages community health perspective and makes the services of medical professionals access to all citizens.
Further, it promotes national health goals; encourages medical professionals to adopt the latest medical research in their work, and contributes to research for India. It also enforces high ethical standards in all aspects of medical services is flexible to adapt to changing needs and has an effective grievance redressal mechanism.
The government dissolved the MCI in 2018 and replaced it with a Board of Governors (BoG), which was chaired by a member of NITI Aayog. Now, the IMC Act, 1956 stands repealed after the gazette notification and has been replaced by The National Medical Commission Act that came into existence on 8th August 2019.
Four separate autonomous boards
1. Undergraduate medical education
2. Postgraduate medical education
3. Medical assessment and rating
4. Ethics and medical registration
The common final year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) examination will now be known as the National Exit Test (NEXT), according to the new medical education structure under the NMC. NEXT will act as a licentiate examination to practice medicine, the criteria for admission to postgraduate medical courses, and also for screening of foreign medical graduates.
Besides, the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET), NEXT will also be applicable to institutes of national importance such as all the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in a bid to ensure a common standard in the medical education sector in the country.
The functions of the NMC
Framing policies for regulating medical institutions and medical professionals assessing the requirements of healthcare-related human resources and infrastructure ensuring compliance by the State Medical Councils of the regulations made under the Bill framing guidelines for determination of fees for up to 50 percent of the seats in private medical institutions and deemed universities that are regulated under the Bill.
The NMC will frame policies and coordinate the activities of four autonomous boards. Each autonomous board will consist of a president and four members, appointed by the central government. These boards are—Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB), and the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB).
There will be a uniform National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to under-graduate and post-graduate super-specialty medical education in all medical institutions regulated under the Bill.
The NMC will specify the manner of conducting common counseling for admission in all such medical institutions. There will be a common final year under-graduate examination called the National Exit Test for students graduating from medical institutions to obtain the license for the practice.
This Test will also serve as the basis for admission into post-graduate courses at medical institutions. Under the NMC Act, the final year examination has been converted into a nationwide exit test called NEXT. This single examination will grant -
1. A license to practice medicine
3. Entrance to postgraduate courses.
4. There is a provision for common counselling for entrance to PG courses.
5. Students will be able to get admission to seats in all medical colleges and institutes of national importance like AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh, and JIPMER through a single counselling process.
6. The Act does not impose any restriction on the number of attempts at NEXT examination.
About the Fee Criteria
An outstanding feature of the NMC Act is that it provides for the regulation of fees and all other charges in 50 percent seats in private colleges as well as deemed to be universities. There was no provision to regulate fees in the Indian Medical Council Act 1956. According to the government, nearly 50 percent of the total MBBS seats in the country are in government colleges, which have nominal fees. Of the remaining seats, 50 percent would be regulated by NMC. This means that almost 75 percent of the total medical seats in the country would be available at reasonable fees.
According to the central government, the NMC Act will reduce the burden on students, ensure probity in medical education, bring down its costs, simplify procedures, help to enhance the number of medical seats in India, ensure quality education and provide wider access to people for quality healthcare.
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