In the wake of massive overhaul of the Medical Council of India (MCI), experts want the government to ensure proper representation of all the stakeholders while drafting new regulations and rules. They fear that failing to which the new law will be as useless and burdensome to the industry and the country as the previous one had been.
MCI, which has been in the limelight for all the wrong reasons, will soon undergo a major reform under the new government. It is understood that the government has already fast-tracked the process and set things in motion. However, highly placed source from the government's planning bureau informed that like the previous government, even now all the decision making powers have been entrusted to committee comprising of bureaucrats alone rather than having technically qualified experts in the team.
“It is ironic how the government agrees that there needs to be radical change made in the medical education of this country to ensure better healthcare provisions. However, at the same time they fail to realise that by not involving major stakeholders they are following exactly the same pattern of the previous government. Anything related to healthcare should not be made by bureaucrats alone, it should go beyond that and in a transparent manner so as to avoid the Ketan Desai like incidence,” said a source.
The source pointed out that the country needs a lean overarching body that attunes to the needs and requirements of the people of the country and not to address the coffers of the corrupt. The only way of doing this is by involving stakeholders like healthcare providers, hospitals, medical colleges, medical insurance companies in the whole process and not just the doctors, a source closely associated with government proceedings informed.