Anupriya Patel, Union Minister of State for Health, highlighted the consequences for medical colleges that do not meet quality standards, in the ongoing Winter Session of the Indian Parliament.
She made these revelations in the Rajya Sabha, while discussing the efforts of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to improve the quality of medical education in India, Medical Dialogues reports.
According to the Minister, institutions that fail to meet any of the standards, including faculty, infrastructure, or clinical requirements, are issued show-cause notices and required to produce compliance reports. These reports are then used to conduct further evaluations.
If colleges are found to be in serious non-compliance, they face monetary penalties and reduced MBBS seats, among other consequences.
"The Commission has undertaken several measures to enhance the quality of medical education in the country, in accordance with the Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (MSMER 2023)," Patel said in her reply.
She noted that medical colleges must submit their Annual Declared Records (ADR) by uploading them onto the NMC's portal to be evaluated by an expert panel. In case of discrepancies, they will be issued show-cause notices, and will have to submit compliance reports.
In addition, the MSMER 2023 also provides for the state government authorities to be apprised of any discrepancies in the medical colleges’ ADRs.
The Minister also talked about the measures being implemented by the Postgraduate Medical Education Board under the Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (PGMER 2023), such as notification of programmes, specification of clinical workload, faculty-student ratios, and bed and faculty requirements for postgraduate courses.
She mentioned that the PGMER 2023 provides for the maintenance of standards through annual inspections, imposition of penalties, and appeal mechanisms.
The Minister provided these details in response to questions posed by Member of Parliament CV Shanmugam, who wanted to know if the National Medical Commission was aware that the quality of medical education was deteriorating in many medical colleges across the country.
The MP also asked for details of steps the government was taking to ensure that the quality of medical education was being imparted to students all across the country.
