New Delhi: The Government has failed to notify for the past two years the proposed amended in the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act 2019, which allowed patients and their relatives to approach its ethics board against the decisions of the State Medical Councils (SMC) in complaints of medical negligence and misconduct against doctors. Currently, there is no provision for patients to challenge the decisions of SMCs regarding the medical negligence of doctors. The failure of the government to notify the amendment in the National Medical Commission (NMC) Act 2019 was revealed in the reply of an RTI filled by the RTI activist Dr K V Babu.
As the need was felt, the health ministry proposed an amendment in the NMC Act 2019 to incorporate the provision for patients/their relatives/complainants to prefer an appeal in the EMRB against the decision/action of SMC in complaints related to medical negligence/professional misconduct. The proposal was published for comment on December 29, 2022. In its August 23, 2023 notification, the NMC said, “…it is clarified that Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) regulation, 2002, shall come into force immediately.” But there has been no move to implement it, though patients have the right to appeal. “Now, the NMC’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) is not allowing appeals, though their notification of August 2023 allows it. This is a violation of the patient’s right,” Babu said, adding that since September 25, 2020, ever since MCI was dissolved, there has been no provision to appeal for the patients.