Govt invites applications for top NMC posts and its four boards, complete overhaul on agenda

Govt invites applications for top NMC posts and its four boards, complete overhaul on agenda

The NMC that had replaced the Medical Council of India faces a management crisis, with the administration raising the issue with the health ministry on several occasions seeking reforms

Priyanka Sharma

Published 8 Oct 2024, 09:37 PM IST

The government has sought applications for the posts of president, secretary and members of NMC, and key positions in the four boards under the NMC.

New Delhi: The health ministry has invited applications to fill posts at the country's medical education regulators following a management crisis at the National Medical Commission (NMC).

It has sought applications for the posts of president, secretary and members of NMC, and key positions in the four boards under the NMC—the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) and Medical Assessment Rating Board (MARB).

The NMC that had replaced the Medical Council of India faces a management crisis, with the NMC administration raising the issue with the health ministry on several occasions seeking reforms as reported by Mint earlier.

Mint reported on 27 September that the NMC has sought government intervention to resolve an internal crisis with its four autonomous boards working at cross-purposes, two people aware of the development said. The commission had had to cancel several public notices following poor internal consultations, and had flagged the matter to the Union health ministry.

“While reviewing applications of the medical colleges to the health ministry in July and August, it came to our notice that many such applications have seen conflicting decisions within boards,” the first person said on the condition of anonymity.

Increasing mismanagemet

The disarray comes in the wake of an outcry over leaked question papers in the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) that selects candidates for various undergraduate medical courses. NMC, which replaced the erstwhile Medical Council of India, administers NEET, taken by more than 2.3 million candidates this year.

According to a person aware of the matter, while UGMEB imposed penalties on one college, PGMEB allowed the same institution to increase the number of seats. In another case, MARB allowed a college to increase the number of PG seats, only for PGMEB to reduce them. Mint could not identify the institutions involved. The NMC has taken the matter to the health ministry several times, including as recently as August, the people cited above said.

Withdrawing official communications due to poor internal discussions has become frequent, the second official said. On 16 August, PGMEB issued a notice discontinuing all courses under the umbrella of the College of Physicians & Surgeons (CPS), Mumbai. However, it was withdrawn on 30 August after it was challenged in the Bombay High Court. Similarly, the UMEB on 31 August issued Competency-based Medical Education Curriculum (CBME) Guidelines, 2024, before withdrawing it on 5 September.

The NMC was created by a government notification on 24 September 2020, aiming to introduce objectivity, transparency and fairness in the processes, and to provide more operational flexibility and ensure prompt decision-making to improve the quality of medical education. The four boards were envisaged to achieve these objectives, functioning independently with well-defined powers and responsibilities.

A former NMC member said the individual boards are not empowered to issue notifications; only the NMC secretariat may do so. “In fact, between 2021 and 2022, I submitted in writing that the boards were going above the head of NMC, and they cannot take decisions without NMC's order,” the former member said on the condition of anonymity.

Dr J.L. Meena, a former MARB member, said he had raised his concerns about the conduct of the boards to NMC in April. “I myself wrote to the NMC leadership regarding mismanaged boards within NMC. Boards are not doing roles as defined in NMC Act,” he said.

Queries sent to the Union health secretary, the health ministry spokesperson and the NMC secretary remained unanswered.

In December, former NMC secretary Vipul Aggarwal highlighted these issues in a letter to the health ministry, saying the separation of powers between boards was disregarded and the commission is reduced to a “mere rubber stamp”. Mint has seen a copy of the letter.

The letter said the boards were acting independently of each other and the NMC, leading to poor transparency, accountability and grievance redressal, potentially damaging the standards of medical education and harming the NMC's image. The boards had misinterpreted their autonomy to mean independence, and were directly interacting with the ministry and outsiders, potentially leading to serious embarrassment, the letter stated. It suggested the NMC's supervision should be with the NMC secretariat, headed by the secretary.

Aggarwal declined to comment on this matter. “I am not part of NMC now and it is hardly within my responsibility,” Aggarwal told Mint.

The NMC typically imposes meagre fines of a few lakhs of rupees and allows erring institutions to renew their licences without getting deficiencies rectified, alleged Dr. Neeraj Bedi, former medical superintendent of a private medical college in Bhopal, calling it illegal and unethical. At many medical institutions, deans and medical superintendents defer to management demands and the roles themselves are defunct, he said.

“NMC's regulation on Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, (MSMER), 2023, clause VIII, which deals with penalties, recommends denial of permission or renewal to medical college applications. This practice is bringing down the quality of medical education in the country. NMC has miserably failed to regulate as apex medical education statutory body to deliver,” Dr. Bedi said.

Dr R.V. Asokan, national president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), recalled the autonomous tenure of the Medical Council of India. The council had nurtured medical education in India and produced world-class doctors in India for seven decades after independence, Asokan said, adding the NMC has been structurally defective and constrained in many ways.

Leave hostel for new MBBS batch, med college house surgeons told

Leave hostel for new MBBS batch, med college house surgeons told

Amrita.Didyala@timesofindia.com 09.10.2024 

Hyderabad : In a move highlighting the issue of inadequate infrastructure in medical colleges set up in the last few years, the govt medical college in Nalgonda has asked house surgeons to vacate hostels to accommodate the new MBBS batch. In a written circular, the college principal has asked 18 house surgeons to move out. 

These house surgeons, who are among the 142 students from the first batch of the college set up in 2019, have been told to vacate by Oct 13. “ We have spent our entire MBBS and internship in poor conditions ,” said a house surgeon, adding that a salary of ₹25,600 salary is too little. The hostel accommodation, on the other hand, costs only ₹600 per month, which the authorities have offered to return in case the fee had been paid in advance. 

A new hostel building for boys and a new college building has come up in the meantime but is not being inaugurated, said Junior Doctors Association Nalgonda Branch. “As per NMC rule, 80% of house surgeons should be ac commodated, but it is not being done,” said Abdul Samad, president of TJUDA Nalgonda. “There is some work pending. Moreover, it is for new MBBS students. The current hostel facility is a rented one, which is why it is difficult to accommodate house surgeons any more,” said principal Dr N Srivani.

Brother rapes 15-year-old when she confides in him about rape by father

Brother rapes 15-year-old when she confides in him about rape by father

 TIMES NEWS NETWORK  09.10.2024

Bhopal : A 15-year-old minor’s father raped her several times over nearly two years and when she mustered the courage to tell her elder brother about it, he too raped her in Shivpuri district.

Police have arrested both the accused, and a probe is underway in the case. The incident took place in a village under Dinara police station of the district. As per the complaint made by the minor, her 56-yearold father raped her for nearly two years. When she informed her 19-year-old elder brother, he too raped her and even shot obscene videos of her . Dinara Police Station Incharge, Vinod Bhargav, said, “The family included the accused father, his elder son who is also an accused, the survivor, and her younger brother. The mother of the children left her husband a few years ago and went somewhere else.”

 “The minor then informed her younger brother and other members of her extended family, who then brought her to the police station. A case was registered on her complaint on Oct 6, and on Monday, the accused were produced before court, which sent them to jail. A detailed investigation was being carried out,” Bhargav said.

Block edu officer gets anticipatory bail in dead employee’s salary case

Block edu officer gets anticipatory bail in dead employee’s salary case 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 09.10.2024

Bhopal/Jabalpur : The Madhya Pradesh high court refused anticipatory bail to three accused but granted relief to one in a case involving the fraudulent withdrawal of salary for three years after an employee's death. Justice AK Paliwal, while hearing the matter, granted anticipatory bail to the current block education officer (BEO) of Niwas in Mandla district, Shobha Iyer, but denied the same to Vijay Kumar Shrivastav, assistant grade III in the BEO office, and two former BEOs, Ramnarayan Patel and Anand Ku mar Jain. 

A case was registered against them when it was discovered that the salary of a deceased govt employee, Gyan Singh Dhoomketu, who passed away on April 13, 2020, continued to be credited into the account of another person, Satish Kumar Burman, a computer operator. The fraudulent payments spanned the tenures of former BEOs Patel and Jain, with Vijay Kumar Shrivastav, a clerk in their office, allegedly colluding in the act. The court, however, noted that Shobha Iyer joined as BEO at Niwas only in March 2023 and immediately flagged the anomaly upon discovery, leading to her filing a complaint. 

Advocate Amrit Ruprah, representing Iyer, argued that her client, a 61-year-old woman, had no involvement in the embezzlement. Iyer was unaware of the irregularities until she assumed charge. It was Iyer who halted the disbursement of the deceased employee's salary and brought the matter to the attention of authorities. The court granted bail to Iyer, taking into account her limited involvement and her role in exposing the fraud. However, the court denied bail to the other accused, citing their direct responsibility during the period of the embezzlement

NEWS TODAY 08.10.2024

 

Govt doctors protest biometric attendance amid staff shortage

Govt doctors protest biometric attendance amid staff shortage 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK 09.10.2024

Chennai : Opposing govt’s decision to implement biometric attendance, a govt doctors’ association in Tamil Nadu has written to the chief secretary, saying that this measure is discriminatory and unfair, especially when doctors are understaffed and overburdened across govt hospitals. Earlier, the state health department had asked all hospitals under the Directorate of Public Health (DPH) and the Directorate of Medical Services (DMS) to purchase instruments for attendance through facial recognition and had asked all doctors to download software on their mobile phones.

 According to the Indian Public Health Standards, Tamil Nadu needs 30,000 doctors in govt hospitals. “The sanctioned post is only 20,000, and among these, 4,000 posts are vacant. This means we are working with just 50% of the strength,” said service and post graduate doctors association state secretary, Dr A Ramalingam. In his letter to chief secretary N Muruganandam, the association said, “Because of severe manpower shortages, govt doctors are compelled to do 24-hour duty, risking the lives of both themselves and the public.” In addition, doctors are being pushed to generate revenue through the state health insurance scheme, which was introduced in 2009 for the benefit of patients, he said. 

Despite severe staff shortage, doctors have ensured Tamil Nadu remains atop performer in healthcare services, he said. If the govt wants biometric attendance, it must increase sanctioned posts and implement a shift system to reduce burden on doctors and ensure adequate rest, he said. The association said biometric attendance should not be imposed solely on doctors but should include all staff, including secretarial and administrative staff at the hospital.

NGO seeks information on yoga course, receives RTI reply in Hindi

NGO seeks information on yoga course, receives RTI reply in Hindi 

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  09.10.2024

Chennai : Can yoga and naturopathy graduates be registered under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine and be allowed to practise medicine when the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine (NCISM) Act 2020 does not include the course in its schedule? On Aug 5, the convenor of a Chennai-based NGO, Arappor Iyakkam, Jayaram Venkatesan, sought a copy of the national and state register of licensed medical practitioners of the Indian system of medicine from Tamil Nadu under the RTI Act.

 “I wanted to know if the commission, a statutory body, is the apex body regulating the practice and education of Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, and Sowa-Rigpa (AUS&SR) allows registra-tion of yoga and naturopathy graduates,” he said. While students joining undergraduate courses in Ayurveda, Unani, or Siddha must have cleared NEET, students are admitted to yoga and naturopathy courses based on merit in Class XII marks. When these students graduate, they are registered in the registry of Indian medicine. “Without registration, candidates will not be allowed to practise medicine. 

We want to know under what law they are being registered,” he told TOI. A month later, the National Commission for Indian System of Medicinelaw office and central public information officer Gyanendra Narayan Sah sent a two-point reply written in Hindi. First, he said national registration numbers have not been provided to Tamil Nadu. He also added that data received from Tamil Nadu is third party information and cannot be shared. “The central govt denying this information, that too in Hindi, is highly condemnable. 

When a question is asked in English, the reply must be in English. Several courts have said this already,” Jayaram said. As a mark of protest, Arappor Iyakkam filed its first appeal to the same department in Tamil on Tuesday. “I am hoping to hear information. Students joining such courses and patients going to these doctors must know if the course is recognised,” he said