The National Commission for Human Resources for Health Bill, 2011 (NCHRH Bill), for establishing an overarching regulatory body for medical education and allied health science, has been introduced in Parliament. The bill has been introduced by union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad.
The proposed Commission would subsume the existing councils like Medical Council of India (MCI), Dental Council of India (DCI), Pharmacy Council of India (PCI) and Nursing Council of India (NCI).
The bill seeks to consolidate the law in certain disciplines of health sector and promote human resources in that sector and provide for mechanism for the determination, maintenance, coordination and regulation of standards of health education throughout the country. It proposed to “establish the National Commission for Human Resources for Health to supervise and regulate professional councils in various disciplines of health sector.”
The NCHRH will be under the ministry of health as an overarching regulatory body for medical education and allied health sciences with a dual purpose of reforming the current regulatory framework and enhancing the supply of skilled manpower in the health sector.
The proposed NCHRH would also constitute a National Board for Health Education (NBHE) and a National Evaluation and Assessment Committee (NEAC) with a mandate to prescribe minimum standards for health education and developing and maintaining system of accreditation of health educational institutes respectively. Apart from this, National Councils have also been proposed to be set up under NCHRH to inter-alia ensure ethical standards among medical professionals.
It will prescribe standards with a view to have proper planning and co-coordinated development of medical and allied health education throughout the country and maintain national live electronic register of medical and allied health professionals.
As per the draft bill, the administration of the Council will consist of a Secretariat headed by a Secretary-General who will be appointed by the Council for a fixed term of three years. Under this secretariat, seven departments, each for separate categories like Medicine, Pharmacy, Nursing, Dentistry, Rehabilitation & Physiotherapy, Public Health & Hospital Management and Allied Health Sciences, will be established and headed by a director for regulatory purposes.
In every state, there will be separate bodies constituted by the Council for each administrative department which will be known as Registration and Ethics Board with name of the state in front and the department's name in the end. These bodies will replace the existing State Councils. These boards have to maintain a live electronic register of professionals in the state of the respective Department to be known as 'State Register of (name of the Department) and which will be linked to the National Register of Human Resources in Health maintained by the Council.
Each Board will comprise of a president, a vice-president and not less than 10 members out of which three will be women candidates. There will be a nominee of the state government also.