- Parliament has passed the National Medical Commission(NMC) Bill, 2019 which seeks to repeal the Indian Medical Council Act,1956.
- However,experts have said that there are two fundamental contradictions and inconsistencies in the NMC Act,2019.
- The first contradiction is that Section 15(1) of the NMC Act act has proposed a common exit examination called National Exit Test(NEXT) for the purpose of ‘licensing’
- Section 15(5) says that NEXT would serve the purpose of national eligibility and entrance test(NEET) towards admission to postgraduate courses in broad specialities.However,nowhere it is mentioned that NEXT would serve the purpose of conferment of MBBS degree.
- The second contradiction is that Section 32 of the NMC act provides for licensing of non medical persons or Community Health Providers to practise modern medicine.
- However,the term Community Health Provider has been vaguely defined to allow anyone connected with modern medicine to get registered in NMC and be licensed to practise modern medicine.
