Medical Council Bill still flawed: Doctors

A few changes to the proposed National Medical Council (NMC) Bill have not pleased doctors from the Indian Medical Association (IMA). They say the government has made negligible variations and the core issues like ‘crosspathy’, few elected representatives, and free hand for private medical colleges to decide the fees remain the same.

“If the Bill is passed, we will have no choice but to withdraw our services,” said IMA Maharashtra president Dr. Y.S. Deshpande, a general physician based in Nagpur. He said the few changes that the government suggested to the proposed Bill after their protests would make no difference.

The NMC Bill has been drafted to replace the existing Medical Council of India Act that governed the MCI and make way for the new council. While the MCI was swarmed in allegations of corruption, the government intends to make a new clean council. “But this entire idea of making a new council and Bill seems flawed. The MCI has been in place since several years and has a set system. Instead of uprooting corruption, the government is uprooting the body and Act,” said Dr. Deshpande.