THE National Medical Commission (NMC) came into existence from Friday as the country’s apex regulator of medical education and profession replacing the Medical Council of India (MCI).
With this, the nearly 64-year-old Indian Medical Council Act stands repealed and the Board of Governors appointed in supersession of the MCI has also been dissolved with effect from September 25, the Health Ministry said.
“Historic reform in the field of medical education has been effected by the Union Government with the constitution of the National Medical Commission (NMC), along with four autonomous boards,” the Ministry said in a statement.
“With this, the decades-old institution of the Medical Council of India (MCI) stands abolished,” it said. Former head of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences ENT department here, Dr Suresh Chandra Sharma, has been appointed as Chairman for a period of three years with effect from Friday, while Rakesh Kumar Vats, who was Secretary General in the Board of Governors of the MCI, is the secretary of the commission, according to gazette notifications issued on Thursday.
The NMC Act, which seeks to usher in mega reforms in the medical education sector, received the assent of the president on August 8, 2019 and was published the same day.
The Act provided for setting up of an NMC in place of the scam-tainted MCI. The four autonomous boards under the NMC Act -- the Under-Graduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Post-Graduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), Medical Assessment and Rating Board and the Ethics and Medical Registration Board -- have also been constituted and comes into existence from Friday, according to the |notifications.
“This historic reform will steer medical education towards a transparent, qualitative and accountable system,” the statement said.