Support the NCHRH Bill
Published by Vijay September 7th, 2009 in Healthcare, Life in India, Medical Education, Medicine, News, Politics…
Note: This post is a request for support for a healthcare related bill that is likely to be proposed in the Indian Parliament this year. I would greatly appreciate any publicity that you can give for this issue. Please link, reblog, tweet, digg, stumble, or share in all the other myriad ways of Web 2.0.
I would be grateful if Indian bloggers and blog aggregators like DesiPundit and Blogbharti publicized this.
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A few days ago I received an email from a young Indian doctor who is the major force behind an advocacy group made up of similar young doctors who have been fighting a long legal battle against the Medical Council of India. I know the previous sentence sounds all “cloak-and-dagger-ish,” but I do not want to reveal names as I have not asked him/them if that is acceptable.
The email was a straightforward request to sign an online petition -
Support group for National council for Human Resources in Health bill
I must admit that I had no idea that there was such a bill being proposed and what its purpose would be. The best information that I could get online was in this news article in the The Times of India, with a rather dramatic headline…
MCI scrapped, single council for medical education
In a complete overhaul aimed at cleansing the medical education system in the country, a task force of the Union health ministry has decided to scrap all regulatory bodies, including the Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Pharmacy Council and the Nursing Council, sources revealed. There will instead be a single regulatory body - National Council for Human Resources in Health - which will oversee seven departments related to medicine, nursing, dentistry, rehabilitation and physiotherapy, pharmacy, public health/hospital management and allied health sciences, sources involved in the revamp process said on Thursday. The move now needs a formal government notification. The council will be constituted as an autonomous body independent of government controls with adequate power, including quasi-judicial.
This will not only perform the regulatory functions but also carry out assessment and accreditation of medical and health institutions across the country. Simply put, the council will coordinate the entire gamut of medical and health education in India. This will include drafting courses and the period of study, including practical training, subjects of examination and standards of proficiency, conditions for admissions to courses, provide guidelines on curriculum planning, monitoring and overseeing implementation of UG/PG courses with flexibility for local specific modules.
“Medical education today is dictated by bank balance and caste. The existing councils, besides being unwieldy, have failed to provide a synergistic approach. There is an urgent need for innovation in health-related education. It is unfortunate that medical seats are auctioned in front of students today. This is the best surgical solution for cleansing the system,” a source told TOI. The report which was discussed with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on August 26, 2009 by the task force states: “Professional councils such as the MCI/ Nursing and Pharmacy Councils have been set up to regulate the practice of their respective professions, including education. However, many of these councils have drawn criticism from all sections of society and got judicial censure on several occasions.”
Sources said the Centre will now take this move to all the states before implementing it. On its part, the Union health ministry has already readied a draft bill titled The National Council for Human Resources in Health Draft Bill, 2009.
Though all central and state universities shall conduct their own examinations and award degrees, the national council will conduct national-level exit examinations to standardise UG/PG medical and allied health courses. This screening examination shall be mandatory for students who have successfully completed UG from a foreign institution that is not recognised by the council. With this, the National Board of Examinations (NBE) shall be archived.
With a mere 9% of the UG medical students offering [sic] PG, the task force has proposed that prominent hospitals across the country be allowed to offer post-graduate courses. “PG seats are so few that students have no option but to study what is given to them rather than what they want to pursue,” a source said. [all emphases are mine]
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I personally agree with most of what is said in the above news article. All of us in the medical field in India know that the Medical, Dental Councils etc., have become bloated bureaucracies that do very little for their members.
I do not suppose the new Council will turn out to be any different, but we can hope that there will be a change for the better.
I request you all (including my friends from other countries) to sign the online petition and to spread the news.
Let us hope that at a time when nations like the USA and UK are involved in overhauling and streamlining their healthcare systems, we in India can start the process too.
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9 Responses to “Support the NCHRH Bill”
- 1 Pingback on Sep 7th, 2009 at 11:23 am
- 2 Pingback on Sep 10th, 2009 at 9:28 am
- 3 Pingback on Sep 28th, 2009 at 9:16 am
sir,
I humbly appeal prime ministerji, kindly scrape existing mci ,which IS most uregent and essential to protect natural justice, kindly constitute new body comprising ,doctors with MD/MS/DNB/DCH/D -ORTHO/DIPLOM DEGREE HOLDERS,scientists FROM ICMR/IIS/CCMB/CFTRI/CDC/NIN/CSIR/UNIVERSITY,M.Sc/ph.D teachers from medical/dental college,educationist,rtd judges,social worker,govt india officer,this kind of people requirs for protection of service norms / constitutional status,the existing mci controlled by perticular group of people for last 2-3 decades,who are violeted several constitutional norms as its statutary power given by parliment,
I HOPE MCI MONEY LOBY WILL NOT PREVENT NCHRH BILL
I am actually delighted by this news that Autocratic, Corrupt Body like the Medical Council of India would be replaced by a new more Democratic and practical body to govern Medical education in India which has been under terrible shape and Frustration is at its brim among the Students, Faculty and existing medical fraternity. Everybody is boggled by Dictatorship of MCI who in the Garb of Various Supreme Court Orders signifying its expertise had completely overturned the pillars of merit based medical education by blind favouring of Private Institutions where the so called MCI norms are nakedly flouted in exchange for hefty amounts of money and power. Medical seats are SOLD at exhonerating price with no metal in those so called Doctors passinf out from Most of private medical colleges if not all. On the contrary, the actual meritorious students of Government Medical Colleges are either suffering or fighting legal battles in courts and loosing due to few orders of Honourable Supreme Court in favour of MCI in blind faith that the persons running the MCI are all Honest people dedicated to better medical education in India.
Untill Govt. of India uproots this CORRUPT body altogether, there cannot be a good future for medical education in India and most of the Doctors would be more of Businessmen than Physicians and the required Nobelness would be gone like Prostitution, and people like us would either go into Depression or would become Naxalites and start Killing the corrupt people directly so as to cleanse the system.
Jai Hind, Jai Bharat
sir,
i am happy with the draft bill to have multiple exit point of examination as professors do pass only the candidates from their own colleges or from private colleges which pay money. dnb candidates are not passed just for the sake of private medical college lobby. the candidates who are hard working and dedicated but poor are being penalised in this system while those who can pay and buy post graduation are benefitted. the mci is the most corrupt body on the world.
i am in full support of scraping the medical council of india.
madhukar
i oppose to such bill becoz by desolving such councils government wants their position in central council for profit of their which not present in current system n such council not entertain them in their decisions thats why goverment want to role in them for their own benifit not for public n everyone knows that where is government there is corruption thas why public should know details about bill n plz oppose it
MCI needs to be scrapped..it is ruining many a careers!It openly favours private medical colleges making crores of rupees in exchange and gives one excuse or the other for not recognizing the same course in a Government College..because it has nothing to get from there…it has no concern about the careers of the hapless students..This is the best chance for the central Govt. to scrap this corrupt, dictatorial and insensitive body..so that with the end of this licence raj a new dawn of medical education ushers..
Sir,
Please compare the bills drafted for almost same purpose, one by health ministry constituting NCHRH, and another draft bill by HRD ministry for NCHER. HRD ministry bill is superior and a class in itself. It can be downloaded from the HRD site. So lead a campaign to add medical education to HRD bill.Thanks..