Hyderabad: The introduction of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill through the back door via the National Education Bill seems to have enraged doctors, who claim that it won’t help practitioners of allopathic medicine which, in the long run, could prove detrimental to public healthcare.
The NMC Bill, which was introduced in Parliament in 2014, lapsed as the government could not get it passed.
A new Bill is now being introduced in the form of the National Education Bill, of which medical education forms a part.
A senior doctor on condition of anonymity explained, “The government is employing back door tactics in introducing the Bill. We have filed a case in the Supreme Court against it. A new name does not suffice to justify the introduction of the Bill.”
IMA Telangana secretary Dr Sanjiv Singh Yadav said, “The NMC bill is an anti-doctor and anti-patient bill. It is not going to benefit the public health system. It will, in fact, create tremendous confusion among people seeking medical care.”
While Ayush doctors have been demanding that the Bill should be passed, allopathic doctors claim that it will ruin modern medicine in India.
Although the clause of the ‘bridge course’ has been discarded from the bill, there is speculation that Ayush doctors will be allowed to practice modern medicine, which could prove a threat to modern medicine.
Doctors are of the opinion that instead of resolving the pre-existing issues between the modern and alternative streams in medicine, the government is fuelling the friction.
