Medical Educational regulation 2021: Building Consent

Relevance: Concerns of Indian Medical Association (IMA) on draft Postgraduate Medical Educational regulation 2021 & demand of withdrawing that bill

Synopsis: According to the new regulation, there shall be common Counseling for admission to all medical educational institutions including Post Graduate “Broad Specialty courses” on the basis of merit list of “National exit Test”

Present Scenario

• The admissions to such programs are based on the post-graduate NEET.
• Half of the seats are based on the All India quota while the rest is under the State governments

What are the concerns/arguments over the present draft?

Draft regulations will leave no discretionary power to the states to manage admissions to state Medical colleges, which rely on state funds. This would make it difficult for the state to provide quality medical services to the local population.

It has been argued that proposed regulations are framed on the same provisions of the National Medical Commission Act 2019 that replaced the Medical Council Act of India.  They were the source of friction between the center and state. So these provisions have the potential to become the source of friction between Centre and state professionals

Status of healthcare in India

The Centre plays a critical role in funding, introducing targeted programs to eradicate diseases & to improve the overall healthcare standard across all India. However, health care is a state subject and the implementation of all these have been laid in the hand of states.

What needs to be done?

We have witnessed a declining healthcare system and infrastructure in India, especially during times of pandemics when extreme shortage and unavailability of quality health care was felt. Thus, it becomes important to:

• Bridge the alternative system of medicine with modern medicine without any political and religious interference.
• Involvement of all stakeholders like IMA, State Medical councils, and representation of health care groups

 Terms to Know

Indian Medical Association (IMA)