All candidates looking to practice medicine in India will now have to register with the National Medical Commission (NMC) besides state medical councils and get a Unique Identification Number (UID) which will be generated centrally by the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB), NMC.

The website will display information regarding medical practitioners like registration number, name, date of registration, place of working (name of hospital/institute), medical qualification, including additional medical qualification, speciality and name of the institute or university where the qualification was obtained, PTI stated.

Who is eligible?

Any person who obtains a primary medical qualification recognised under the NMC Act, 2019, and qualifies for the National Exit Test (NExT) held under section 15 of the Act, shall be entitled for grant of registration in NMR, the notification said.

Additionally, those who obtain a foreign medical qualification and qualify for NExT shall also be entitled for grant of registration in NMR, subject to the fulfilment of conditions specified in the Foreign Medical Graduates Regulation, 2021.

"All existing medical practitioners enrolled in the Indian Medical Register or the State Medical Register, not having the registration number as per this regulation shall update in the web portal of the Ethics and Medical Registration Board within a period of three months of publishing of these regulations and obtain the registration number as a one-time measure and the licence so generated shall be valid for a period of five years from the date of issuance," the notification said.

No fees shall be charged by the EMRB or NMC for updating the licence of a medical practitioner.

What's the process?

Eligible persons may opt for any state to practice medicine and the application made through the web portal shall be referred to the State or States Medical Council concerned, the notification added.

The State Medical Council shall consider the application for a grant of licence to practice medicine in that state after charging a fee within a period of 30 days. The certificate of licence shall contain a registration number which shall be formed in such a way that a UID shall be suffixed with a code of the state or Union Territory concerned.

On approval of the application by the State Medical Council, the same shall be reflected in the National Medical Register and also in the State Medical Register, the notification stated.