The National Medical Commission (NMC) recently released rules for medical practitioners. Trinamool Congress MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar objected to the guidelines, saying that doctors cannot be made to work like bonded labourers or have their jobs compared to those of other professionals. She called the NMC guidelines "draconian" during the debate on the Motion of Thanks to the President's address.
A 2017 GO on the execution of a bond on mandatory government service was suspended by the Telangana High Court, providing 23 doctors with temporary reprieve. The suspension is in effect until February 14, when the case will be reheard. Judge NV Shravan Kumar made it plain that the 23 doctors who had approached the court were the only ones to be covered by the interim order when he issued it.
The guidelines also stipulated that 80 per cent of hospital beds should be occupied throughout the year by patients requiring inpatient care and minimum 15 per cent of the total beds in the department imparting post-graduate training should be Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds/high dependency unit (HDU) beds exclusively of that department.
The policy refers to a contract between the medical college and student that mandates the latter to pay a hefty amount ranging anywhere between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 40 lakh or more if she or he decides to discontinue the course midway. The practice is prevalent in both government and private-run medical colleges.
The institutes have been given 15 days to reply to the notice, failing which they will face punitive action. A source said it’s an ill-kept secret that many medical colleges are facing faculty shortage. The shortage of attendance could mean many faculty members are guest lecturers, which is not permit-ted under NMC rules.
The chief minister stated further that several construction projects are underway, including the development of a 20-bed Intensive Care Unit (ICU) section.
Some changes in the examination system have also been introduced which include formative assessment and option of multiple-choice questions in university examinations, Dr Vijay Oza, president of Post-Graduate Medical Education Board of the NMC said.
According to the latest guidelines, patients who are critically ill should not be admitted to an ICU if they do not give their consent. "Critically ill patients should not be admitted to the ICU; if Patient's or next-of-kin informed refusal to be admitted in ICU."
India has witnessed several significant developments in the Indian healthcare sector in 2023. ETHealthworld, through this timeline, brings some major developments in the country in the last calendar year.
The move follows a letter written by the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Dr Atul Goel to the NMC flagging the issue and asking it to issue necessary instructions to the healthcare professionals affiliated with the NMC and the Indian Medical Association (lMA).
"The National Medical Commission decided to allow one additional attempt (FIFTH attempt) to such MBBS students who were admitted in medical colleges during the academic year 2020-21 and could not pass their first professional MBBS examination as this batch was also affected by COVID 19 pandemics," the NMC said in a public notice.
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