Doctors recommend life-saving surgery for the Medical Council of India
A national coalition
of doctors and activists working in public health on Wednesday demanded that
the Medical Council Act, 1956, be scrapped. This, they said, will help overhaul
medical education and boost public health systems in the country.
This call was made
during a meeting in New Delhi that was organised following the release of a
scathing Parliamentary Standing Committee Report in March on
the functioning of the Medical Council of India, which regulates medical
education, licensing and practice in the country. The report said that the
council had failed in its mandate to provide quality medical education, and
instil ethics among doctors in the country. On Monday, the Supreme Court
endorsed the report and set up a three-member committee headed by former Chief
Justice RM Lodha to oversee the functioning of the MCI for at least a year.
The coalition has also
roped in a few Parliamentarians to support their endeavour. Independent Rajya
Sabha MP, Alajangi Viswanath Swamy, KC Tyagi of the Janata Dal (United), and
Hussain Dalwai of the Indian National Congress, who were present at the
meeting, have pledged their support. The MPs said that they would raise their
voices against the Medical Council of India in Parliament.
Money-making racket
“If a student pays Rs
2 crore to Rs 4 crore to get admission in a private college, he is bound to
take it [back] from the patients,” said Dr Abhay Shukla, from the Pune-based
NGO Support for Advocacy and Training of Health Initiatives. “There is bound to
be corruption. Medical education has to be made highly affordable. Only that
will result in affordability of health care.”
Dr GS Grewal,
president of the Punjab Medical Council, said his experience had shown him that
a lot of black money was being circulated in medical education. Dr Grewal is
credited with having exposed a racket by private
medical colleges in Punjab in which they hired “ghost faculty” just so that
their colleges got teaching licenses.
“Doctors should
declare their assets before and after they become members for public
transparency,” said Dr Ritu Priya Menon, from Jawaharlal Nehru University,
Delhi. The group felt that
the new MCI should be modelled after the General Medical Council in the United
Kingdom. Concurring with the Parliamentary committee report, the coalition felt
that the members of the Medical Council of India should be nominated, and not
elected, as is the case with the UK body.
“We also need members
of civil society in MCI, not just doctors,” said Dr Shukla. Also, the group
felt that the three functions of the MCI – related to regulating medical
education, licensing and practice – should be looked at by separate bodies.
Making their case
This delegation of
doctors will put forward these “socially grounded” views and proposals
expressed in this consultation before Health Minister JP Nadda, the Niti Ayog,
and the Prime Minister’s Office. They also want to have a new draft law ready
to be placed before the government. The group felt that the Parliamentary
Standing Committee Report gave them a good window of opportunity to get the
government to work on reforms related to the MCI.
Some doctors said that
the initiative to scrap the MCI must be made tactfully by roping in members of
Parliament, especially those who have no direct stake in medical education.
“The last count said that 88 MPs have direct interest in medical colleges,”
said Keshav Desiraju, former Union health secretary. “They will be on their
feet to oppose any such [new] bill.”
He added that the
group needed to reach out to more practicing doctors. “I see the same group of
people each time I come for a meeting like this,” said Desiraju. “The doctor
community needs to be more involved. We need a much larger group of people who
are willing to stand up and be counted.”
