Bridge course proposed in NMC Bill should not be made mandatory: Par panel

A parliamentary panel has said the 'bridge course', proposed in the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, to allow practitioners of alternative medicines such as homoeopathy and ayurveda to practise allopathy, should not be made a mandatory provision.

The committee also recommended penal provisions for those practising medicine without requisite qualification.

Noting that every state has its own specific healthcare challenges, the panel recommended that the state governments may implement measures to enhance the capacity of existing healthcare professionals, including AYUSH practitioners, B.Sc (Nursing), BDS, B.Pharma and others to address their specific primary healthcare issues in rural areas.

The recommendations were made by the Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare in its report on the National Medical Commission Bill 2017, tabled in Parliament today.

The NMC Bill, 2017, which seeks to replace the existing apex medical education regulator, the Medical Council of India (MCI), with a new body, was moved by the government in Parliament on December 29.

Following opposition from the medical fraternity over different provisions of the proposed legislation, one of which was the 'bridge course', the Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee.

The provision of the Bill was strongly opposed by health bodies, including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), which claimed that allowing AYUSH doctors to practice modern medicine would promote "quackery", although the ministry of health had stated that the provision seeks to address the "acute shortage" of doctors in the country.

"The committee is of the view that the bridge course should not be made a mandatory provision in the present Bill," it said.

The panel, chaired by Ram Gopal Yadav, however, acknowledged the need to build the capacity of existing human resources in the healthcare sector, to address shortage of professionals.

The ministry had said the NMC Bill seeks to fill in the gaps of availability of healthcare personnel by facilitating trained AYUSH practitioners to expand their skill sets through a Bridge Course and provide preventive allopathic care.

The bridge course may help address this demand and better utilisation of resources while making the health sector a bigger provider of employment, it has said.

The NMC Bill also promotes this through raising exposure patients suffering from non-communicable diseases to non-allopathic practitioners in addition to allopathic doctors.

In its views expressed to the committee, the ministry said, "India has a doctor-population ratio of 1:1655 as compared to WHO standards of 1:1000. In addition, city doctors are not willing to work in rural areas as can be seen in the Urban Rural ratio of doctor density."