The prolonged turf-war between the Union ministry for health and the Union human resources development ministry over the constitution of an overarching body regulatory body for medical education and allied health sciences seems to have been settled.

According to official sources, a draft cabinet note and a bill are being finalised to take ahead the proposal to set up the National Commission for Higher Education and Research (NCHER) after 'consultations with the stakeholders.'

As per the agreement between the two ministries, the NCHER will be under the HRD Ministry for higher education and the National Commission for Human Resources for Health (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 Commission would subsume the existing councils viz., Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Nursing Council of India and Pharmacy Council of India.

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.

The HRD Ministry had sent the draft bill for setting up NCHER to various ministries after the idea was in the pipeline for nearly two years now. However, the Health Ministry opposed inclusion of medical education under the proposed overarching regulatory body on the ground that it was linked to health services while the NCHER had said that since all education was governed by the university system and there were multi-disciplinary areas of research, all education should come under one regulator.

Now the issue has been settled some way with the health ministry redrafting its National Commission for Human Resources for Health (NCHRH) Bill, sources said, adding that the jurisdiction of both the ministries in the education sector would be clearly specified in the bills with no room for overlapping and confusion.