The Medical Council of India, which is the regulator of medical education in the country, may be scrapped soon after a three-member NITI Ayog committee headed by its Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya submits its report to the centre next week.
The committee has deliberated with various stakeholders on the issue of overhauling the medical education sector and would submit its report next week, reported the Press Trust of India. It has suggested establishing a new body with three-pronged approach emphasising on career, enterprise and ethics.
A parliamentary panel had also slammed the MCI earlier for failing to regulate the medical education sector in the country. The panel also criticised the composition of the MCI, describing it as opaque and skewed. The report, while stressing on the need to bring diversity within MCI, said: "If the medical regulator has to function all its stipulated functions, then its membership should be opened to diverse stakeholders. There is currently no restriction on the term of a council member which has led to the entrenchment of vested interests."
It called for scrapping of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, under which the apex body for medical education is currently functioning.
It also recommended the bifurcation of two major areas -- medical education and practice of ethical conduct by medical professionals — so they receive more focused attention. The health ministry was also pulled up by the committee for failing to stem the rot in medical education.
