NMC amends rules for setting up medical institutes
The National Medical Commission (NMC), the apex medical education regulatory body, has come out with draft Establishment of Medical College Regulations, (Amendment), 2022 ushering changes in rules for setting up medical institutes.
The draft amendment regulations introduced changes in qualifying criteria for establishing medical colleges mentioned in ‘Establishment of Medical College Regulations, 1999.
According to NMC’s draft amendment, universities, deemed-to-be-universities having medical colleges, and 1000-bed hospitals do not need fully functional hospitals.
Earlier universities and deemed-to-be-universities were required to fulfill the condition of a fully functional hospital for at least two years.
The modified qualifying criteria, as mentioned in the clause 2(5A) of qualifying criteria of amended regulations says, “The condition of ‘fully functional hospital for a minimum period of 2 years’ shall not apply in case of universities or deemed to be universities within the meaning of University Grants Commission Act, 1956, having experience of establishing and running fully functional recognized medical colleges and hospital of 1,000 beds or more, for at least two years, anywhere in India, provided that the building of both the hospital and the medical college is owned and managed by the same organization and the building of the proposed medical college has not been used for any other purpose before making an application to the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC for establishment of new medical colleges. Besides this, at the time of application, it has an established multi-specialty hospital with at least 1,000 in-patient beds and fulfilling all other norms under the regulation.”
The NMC on September 19, 2022 invited public comment on draft Establishment of Medical College Regulations, (Amendment), 2022. The commission has asked stakeholders including medical colleges to share their feedback in a month.
The number of government medical colleges has grown from 181 in 2013-14 to 313 in 2021-22, while the private sector medical colleges have seen an increase from 206 to 283 during the same period, according to a report on the medical education reforms 2014-2020, released by the Union ministry of health and family welfare.
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