MCI fails as medical education regulator, revamp it: Parl panel

A parliamentary committee has called for revamping the Medical Council of India (MCI), saying, it has failed in its role as the regulator and this had led to a downward slide in the country’s medical education system.

The committee in its report, which was recently submitted to the Rajya Sabha, called on the government to exercise its constitutional authority and take decisive action to restructure and revamp India’s regulatory system of medical education and practice.

“Due to massive failures of the MCI and lack of initiatives on the part of the government in unleashing reforms, there is total system failure due to which the medical education system is fast sliding downwards and the quality has been hugely sidelined in the context of increasing commercialisation of medical education and practice,” the report said.

The MCI has failed to create a curriculum that produces doctors suited to the Indian context, specially in rural and poor urban areas, the panel said. The panel maintained that the Council also failed to maintain uniform standards of undergraduate and postgraduate medical education. 

“There is devaluation of merit in admission, particularly in private medical institutions due to prevalence of capitation fees, which make medical education available only to the rich and not necessarily to the most deserving,” the panel said.

The MCI has failed in setting up medical colleges in the country as per need, resulting in geographical mal-distribution of medical colleges, with clustering in some states and absence in several states, acute shortage of medical teachers and abysmal doctor-population ratio, the panel said.

Also, the Council has failed to oversee and guide the continuing medical education in the country, leaving this important task in the hands of the commercial private industry.

It also failed to instill respect for a code of ethics in medical professionals and take disciplinary action against doctors found violating the code etc., the report said. The committee observed that the onus of failure of medical education system and imbalance in the distribution of medical colleges across states cannot be laid exclusively on MCI. The successive governments have also their share in it.