Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged to revamp Medical Council of India

New Delhi: Charging that Medical Council of India (MCI) has lost its "credibility and moral standing", former health secretaries and doctors have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revamp it to ensure that hospital chains and owners of medical colleges, having "deep conflicts of interest", do not enter this body.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, the former members of MCI, health secretaries and prominent doctors, also urged Modi to revamp the curricula for graduate and post-graduate medical education.

"We request that the implementation of the recommendations is taken up without delay, namely replacing the elected council with medical and non-medical persons to be selected by an expert body in a transparent manner, in order to ensure that hospital chains and owners of medical colleges, having deep conflicts of interest, do not enter this body and subvert it once again for their personal gain.

"Revamp the curricula for graduate and post-graduate education, separate the three functions of regulation, education and accreditation with eminent individuals known for their professional and personal integrity and the institution of a national entrance and exit examination so as to ensure better quality of the doctors being produced," the letter said.

Among those who have signed the letter are former health secretaries Javid Choudhury, Prasanna Hota, Sujatha Rao, Chandramouli and Keshav Desiraju and MK Bhan, former secretary of the Department of Biotechnology, and Gautam Sen and Sita Naik (former members of the Board of Governors of MCI), Srinath Reddy, President of the Public Health Foundation of India, and Samiran Nundi of Gangaram Hospital.