New NMC Bill 2022 Set to Radically Overhaul India’s Medical Sector

New NMC Bill 2022: Per the National Medical Commission’s new Bill passed on 1 August 2019, medical institutions must submit admission details of the MBBS students to the medical council. This move introduced by the Bill aims to bring greater transparency to the medical sector in India.

The Bill also instructed institutions to strictly adhere to the code of conduct laid by its regulations. Although it was to be implemented in 2021, the onset of the recent pandemic delayed it. As a result, the government released a revised notification directing adherence from all medical institutions to its guidelines on 3 February 2022.

The newly released NMC Bill aims to radically overhaul the jurisdictional responsibilities of the national medical regulatory body. This implies that the rules related to cutoffs and counselling patterns will also undergo massive revisions. Moreover, private medical colleges and deemed universities will have to slash their fees by half to accommodate the new regulations. Consequently, deans of several of these private institutions approached the Madras High Court to challenge the regulations. As of now, their plea hearing will take place on 16 August.

Meanwhile, the government has already doled out relevant notices to state universities and their affiliated bodies. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi also tweeted about the new Bill’s execution for all medical universities from 2022.