Doctors Flag Registration, Monitoring Issues With Proposed NMR

Hyderabad: The National Medical Commission’s (NMC) plan to create a National Medical Register (NMR) has raised concerns among doctors, who said that it would require them to register again and pay an additional fee. Doctors have also raised questions over the draft guidelines, monitoring of registered doctors and discrepancies in educational and identity documents.

Dr G. Srinivas, member of the Telangana Medical Council (TMC), told Deccan Chronicle that the NMR could create confusion in monitoring doctors. “Creating a unique ID for doctors is beneficial, but the NMR should have a clear system to monitor doctors who are facing cases. At present, doctors need a no-objection certificate (NOC) from the state medical council to practise in another state. Through the NMR, it may become easier for doctors to practise anywhere even while cases against them are pending,” he said.

Doctors said the draft guidelines should be revised based on suggestions received from state medical councils and medical professionals. They also questioned the need for another registration fee when doctors pay the state medical councils for registration and renewal. In Telangana, doctors pay `1,000 for renewal, while the first-time registration fee is `5,000.

Doctors have also reported difficulties with the educational qualification details on the NMR portal. Some old universities are reportedly not available on the portal. For instance, a doctor who studied at a university affiliated to Dr NTR University of Health Sciences of undivided AP said it hds since been replaced by Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences (KNRUHS) in Telangana, creating difficulty while entering the details.

Another issue was the requirement for documents to match the name on the Aadhaar card. Doctors said differences in their names between the Aadhaar entry and educational certificates were causing problems. In some cases, the name may be written in full in educational certificates, while only the initial appears along with the name on the Aadhaar card.

The issue has come up as the ethics and medical registration board (EMRB) of the NMC moved to amend the Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2026. The NMR is proposed as a national database to verify doctors’ qualifications and registration status and facilitate their practice across State boundaries. It will assign a unique NMR identification number linked to each doctor’s State registration number.

Doctors in Telangana have questioned the need for fresh registration, saying state medical councils provide details of registered doctors to the authorities every year. They said the NMR could instead collect and update the information directly from the state medical councils.