MCI Fails, Restructuring Required

The medical council of India requires to restructure according to the Parliamentary standing committee on health. According to the house panel, the MCI has failed in its mandate as a regulator of medical education and profession.

Further MCI has been recommended to be scrapped up and a new legislation be drafted "at the earliest".

Each and every aspect of the working of the council was criticised in the report tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday. Not only MCI but the health ministry too came in for strong criticism for being a mute spectator for decades and not taking initiative to step in and stem the rot.

The main fault found was the focus of MCI has been on licensing of medical colleges and ethics was completely lost out in this process.

It recommended the immediate bifurcation of the two major areas - medical education and practice of ethical conduct by medical professionals - so that they receive full attention.

The report said "The need for major institutional changes in the regulatory oversight of the medical profession... is so urgent that it cannot be deferred any longer." It added, "If the medical education system has to be saved from total collapse, the government can no longer look the other way and has to exercise its constitutional authority and take decisive and exemplary action to restructure and revamp India's regulatory system of medical education and practice."

"The situation has gone far beyond the point where incremental tweaking of the existing system or piecemeal approach can give the contemplated dividends. That is why the committee is convinced that the MCI cannot be remedied according to the existing provisions of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, which is certainly outdated," it stated.

The committee observed that "the much needed reforms will have to be led by the central government" as "the MCI can no longer be entrusted with that responsibility in view of its massive failures".