In a big blow to the Medical Council of India (MCI), a Parliamentary committee has sought restructuring of its composition.
In a big blow to the Medical Council of India (MCI), a Parliamentary committee has sought restructuring of its composition. Stating that its composition is “opaque” and “biased” against larger public health goals, it said that MCI has become an “exclusive club” of medical doctors either from corporate hospitals or private practice.
In a report presented in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, the committee said that the presently elected MCI neither represents “professional excellence nor its ethos”, and that more than half of the members are either from corporate hospitals or in private practice.
“The committee is surprised to note that even doctors nominated under Section 3(1)(a) and 3(1)(e) to represent state governments and Central governments have been nominated from corporate private hospitals which are not only highly commercialised and provide care at exorbitant cost but have also been found to be violating value frameworks,” said the report which was presented in Rajya Sabha on Tuesday.
The committee stated that the composition of the MCI is “opaque” and “skewed” and diversity needs to be brought into this because having only medical doctors in the council is not an enabling factor for ensuring reforms in medical education and practice,” said the committee as it recommended opening council membership to diverse stakeholders such as public health experts, health economists, health NGOs, patient advocacy groups etc.
The committee also recommended that the government should move swiftly towards removing all the possible roadblocks to the common medical entrance test (CMET), for admission to MBBS and PG courses, including legal issues and immediately introduce the same to ensure that merit and not the ability to pay becomes the criterion for admission to medical colleges.
“It is public knowledge that the majority of seats in private medical colleges are allotted for a capitation fee going up to '50 Lakh and even more in some colleges despite the fact that the capitation is not legal. “This has serious implications for our whole system of medical education and healthcare,” it said.
