Functioning of key medical regulatory body in limbo as Health Ministry delays appointments
NEW DELHI: The National Medical Commission (NMC), India’s apex medical education and regulatory body, is grappling with a severe manpower crisis. Nineteen out of twenty posts across its four autonomous boards remain vacant, with half of these posts unfilled for more than two and a half years, and 75% lying vacant for over six months. The boards are responsible for overseeing undergraduate and postgraduate medical education, recognition of medical colleges, and registration and regulation of medical practitioners.
Despite repeated queries, the Union health ministry has offered little clarity. In response to a recent Right to Information (RTI) request, the ministry said the appointment process is “underway”—the same response it gave on February 3 in an earlier RTI. A parliamentary reply in the Rajya Sabha on March 18 indicated that advertisements to fill these posts were published only on August 31 and October 11, 2024—well past the deadlines mandated under the NMC Act, which requires advertising six months before posts fall vacant.
Complete Vacancy Looms by June
The crisis is set to deepen further. By June 7, the tenure of Dr Vijay Oza, the last remaining board president (Postgraduate Medical Education Board), will end—rendering all four boards completely vacant. Ten posts have remained empty since September 2022, with three never filled since the commission’s inception in 2020.
Breakdown in Decision Implementation
The absence of board members has reportedly led to confusion in executing key decisions. For instance, on September 23, 2023, the NMC resolved that the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) would hear all appeals—including those filed by patients—against decisions of state medical councils. However, the EMRB secretariat has continued to reject such appeals, seemingly unaware of the updated directive.
Two such appeals—one from a patient’s husband in Punjab (rejected February 21) and another from Tamil Nadu (rejected again on March 24)—were dismissed based on a now-outdated 2021 ruling that barred patients or their families from appealing.
Activists Raise Alarm
Dr KV Babu, an ophthalmologist and RTI activist who has long championed patients’ rights to appeal, condemned the inertia: “The posts remaining vacant is affecting the day-to-day functioning of the NMC. What is shocking is that the health ministry is a mute spectator to the incompetent functioning of the NMC.”
Structure of the NMC Boards
Each of the NMC’s four autonomous boards—the Undergraduate Medical Education Board (UGMEB), Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB), Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB), and Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB)—comprises five members: a president, two full-time members, and two part-time members.
