Dr KK Aggarwal
Padma Shri Awardee
The Union Cabinet has cleared some
amendments to the proposed National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, which will
now be debated in both Houses of the Parliament. Will they pass the amended
Bill or will the Bill be passed by vote of voice remains to be seen. IMA and
all doctor MPs should continue their efforts to get more amendments done before
the Bill is passed.
· Final
MBBS Exam to be held as a common exam across the country as an exit test called
the National Exit Test (NEXT): This is a victory of all. IMA had proposed
last year. Now, the students would not have to appear in a separate exam
after MBBS to get license to practice. NEXT would also serve as the screening
test for doctors with foreign medical qualifications to practice in India. It will
make more doctors available to practice. The next debate ….Who will conduct the
exam?
· Provision
of Bridge course for AYUSH practitioners to practice limited modern medicine
has been removed. But it has been left to the State Governments to take
necessary measures for addressing and promoting primary health care in rural
areas. This is a win for both Modern medicine and AYUSH systems of medicine.
Ayush will now be able to continue research in their disciplines. If they had
entered modern medicine, as had been earlier proposed, their very existence
would have been at stake.
· Fee
(including all charges) regulation for 50% seats in private medical
institutions and deemed universities. More details are needed, or the
private institutions will increase the fee for 50% of seats in crores. A
solution to this can be to increase number of government and district medical
colleges.
· Number
of nominees from States and UTs in NMC increased marginally from 3 to 6. The
NMC will comprise of 25 members of which at least 21 will be doctors. Not been
able to increase the seats of registered medical practitioners is a major
failure on our part.
· Only
5 representatives from the registered doctors in states, as suggested to be 9
by the parliamentary committee, is too low a number. It seems that the
government does not want IMA or professional representatives to be a part of
it. It will be our collective failure if we are not being able to
challenge it. Only one representative from each zone or all five from all India
elections will make it interesting?
· Monetary
penalty for a medical college non-compliant with the norms has been replaced
with a provision for different penalty options (warning, reasonable
monetary penalty, reducing intake, stoppage of admission leading up to
withdrawal of recognition etc). This needs to be studied in detail.
· Stringent
punishment for unqualified medical practitioners or quacks: The punishment
for any unauthorized practice of medicine has been made severe by including a
provision for imprisonment of up to one year along with a fine extending up to
Rs. 5 lakhs. It’s good that it is ‘AND’ and not ‘OR’. Once convicted the
imprisonment is a surety. We need to study the loop holes further.
Our struggle was not only against NMC…It
was but one of our many demands.
The battle is still far from being
won.
We were also fighting for suitable amendments
in the Clinical Establishment Act (replacing police representative
from DRA with a representative of the association; exempting single doctor
establishment; doing away with NABH inspection, suggestion with respect to
standard treatment guidelines to be provided by IMA and to define the change in
the word ‘to stabilise’) and PCPNDT Act (graded punishments and non
penal provisions for clerical errors).
A stringent central act against
violence and capping of compensation (to be based on the lines
of Drug and cosmetic rules in a clinical trial and not based on annual income
of the patient) have been on the forefront of our agenda.
We also need to continue to voice our
demands for increasing the health budgetary allocation to 5% of GDP;
introduction of IMS on the lines of IAS and implementation of MCI Code of
Ethics 8.6 to decide professional negligence and misconduct and MCI-IMA
recommendations on police actions as recommended by the Hon’ble Supreme Court
in any alleged criminal negligence.
Our demands of omission of penal provisions
on doctors during practice, uniform pay scale for service doctors across the
country and better service conditions for doctors and patients in government
hospitals still remain unresolved.
Any government listens to pressure.
Events like IMA Dilli Chalo or IMA
Mahapanchayat should be a part of our annual calendar of events and should
become the extraordinary general body meeting of IMA and FOMA.
We should continue to fight for our rights
as well as that of our patients till we achieve what we set out to do when we
embarked on this journey. Even Rama, Krishna, Jesus had to fight for their
principles.
What shape the NMC would ultimately take
may well depend on how steadfast we are.
All resolutions must be adopted and fought
for till they are achieved.
IMA will be taking further call on its plan
of action on 2nd April after meeting with the Health Minister.
