With Medical Council of India (MCI) failing in its efforts to improve the quality of medical education in India, the National Institution for Transforming India, Aayog is planning to scrap MCI and is looking to increase more number of medical colleges in the country to meet the growing demand for healthcare professionals in the country.
According to sources, a report is already in the making for scrapping of MCI, which is being prepared by a committee headed by vice chairman of NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariaya. “The committee has almost finalized the report which is prepared after several deliberations with stakeholders and experts. It is felt that the MCI has fared poorly in regulating the medical education and failed to gauge the demand and supply aspect of medical professionals in the country. The committee is expected to submit the final report to the government by next week,” said a source from NITI Aayog.
Earlier the government had formed a panel headed by NITI Aayog vice chairman to study the aspects of medical education and possible initiatives to be taken to increase medical professionals in the country. In view of this, after studying the performance of MCI, the panel has firmed up to the view that the MCI should be scraped to increase the number of medical colleges in the country for producing more number of doctors to meet the growing demands of the healthcare sector in the country.
At present, the country requires more than 6 lakh doctors, while the existing colleges both in public and private sector are not even meeting 30 per cent of that demand. Most of the MBBS graduates are not willing to work in the rural areas and prefer to stay in cities or going abroad for better opportunities. This is causing a crunch in the availability of doctors in the government sector especially in the rural areas.
“There are many vacancies in government hospitals which require more than 2500 medical professionals in Telangana government hospitals itself. In India, we need more than 4 lakh doctors to bridge the demand supply gap of our healthcare sector,” says B. Vijayavardha Raj of Telangana Medical and Health Employees Union.
In the recent years, though there have been many MBBS colleges have come in the private and government sectors, most of them have failed to comply with quality standards. The MCI which is bestowed with the authority to regulate the medical education is facing allegations of poor regulation. In view of this, the NITI Aayog’s report to scrap the MCI gains significance.