Medical Commission Bill: Ayurvedic, Yoga, Homeopathic Practitioners To Become Doctors After A Bridge Course
Courtesy:�The Indian Express

Medical Commission Bill: Ayurvedic, Yoga, Homeopathic Practitioners To Become Doctors After A 'Bridge Course'

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The Government of India has proposed the National Medical Commission Bill 2017 bill in the parliament on Friday to overhaul the structure of medical education, with the introduction of medical exit examination and put an end to the Medical Council of India (MCI).


What are the future implications and how will it change the healthcare industry?

The Bill allows practitioners of Ayurveda, Homeopathy, Yoga and other alternative medicines to enter the field of modern medicine after completing a “bridge course”, which means more number of allopathy doctors to meet the demands of the evergrowing population of India, reports The Indian Express.

It disallows doctors to elect members of their community to regulate them, thereby angering the Indian Medical Association, India’s largest voluntary organization of doctors. According to the bill, the Centre and the states will be nominating people from the ministries of health, human resource development, and the Department of Pharmaceuticals and experts from health, economics, science etc. to regulate the health authority to bring more transparency.

The Bill also recommends a standard entrance exam and licentiate exams which all medical graduates will have to clear to get practising licenses and no permission would be needed to add the new seat to start post-graduate courses which can undermine the quality of education imparted thereby decreasing the level of competency.

The Bill will set up National Medical Commission (NMC) which will regulate and develop medical education and the profession with the Medical Advisory Council (MAC), a purely advisory body to aid the NMC, having members nominated from every state and union territory to put forth the views of concerned states.

The motion was for a foundation to support the insignia of education on traditional medicine and to designate qualified AYUSH doctors.

The Logical Indian believes that the possibility of transparency seems bleak since the Chairman of the NMC will also be an ex-officio Chairman of the Council, making the leadership unchanged. Furthermore, to meet the shortfall of doctors with India’s overgrowing population, the government should come up with reforms that empower the existing doctors rather than integrating alternative medical practitioners into modern medicine. Currently, MBBS doctors cannot practice certain procedures like a cesarean birth before attaining a masters degree. Even nurses are barred from simple procedures such as administering anaesthesia. Reforms should be aimed at bettering the existing system, not bringing in a solution same as the problem.

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Editor : Ankit Sharma Sharma

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