Bill to repeal Medical Council Act, replace MCI gets cabinet nod

Bill to repeal Medical Council Act

In a major reform in country’s medical education sector, Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved a draft law, which will enable setting up of National Medical Commission replacing Medical Council of India .

The National Medical Commission Bill, 2019, proposes to repeal the Indian Medical Council Act, of 1956.

The bill also says that the proposed Commission will regulate fee and all other charges for 50 per cent seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities, said I&B Minister Prakash Javadekar.

According to the bill, the Common final year MBBS exam to be known as National Exit Text (NEXT) would serve as licentiate exam, for entrance to PG medical courses and as screening test for foreign medical graduates.

The bill provides that the national entrance test, NEET, common counseling and NEXT shall also be applicable to institutes of National Importance (INIs) like AIIMS to have common standards in the country.

“Right now, we have NEET, AIIMS exams. With this bill we will have an EXIT exam that will be for everyone for getting a licence to practice in the country,” Mr Javadekar added.

The Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARD) will conduct assessment to the medical college and develop a system of ranking of medical colleges which would enable the students to choose the medical college wisely.

“These measures will ensure a transparent admission process and also bring down admission fee”, the Minister added.

(UNI)