Call for mandatory representation of practicing family physicians on the National Medical Commission (NMC): Leaving behind the monopolistic barriers in medical education regulation

The National Medical Commission is being constituted through an act of parliament, the NMC Act 2019. This new medical education regulator will take over the role of the Medical Council of India which is being currently run on adhoc basis through a board of governors (BOG). As per the provision of the NMC Act 2019 under section 24 (1) (c), the Under Graduate Medical Education Board is mandated to to develop competency based dynamic curriculum for addressing the needs of primary health services, community medicine and family medicine to ensure healthcare in such areas. Similarly under section 25. (1) (j) the Post Graduate Medical Education Board is mandated to promote and facilitate postgraduate courses in family medicine. It is important to note that the recently announced (2019) and highly publicized new MBBS curriculum the word “family medicine’ has not been even mentioned in the 600 pages document. Through repeated engagements in the form of RTIs, and written representations, it appears that the experts of the Medical Council of India in the past have either deliberately blocked the development of family medicine in India or do not have the basic scholarship within this domain, despite clear direction from NHP and parliamentary standing committee. This has largely happened because there was never any representation of practicing family physicians in the Medical Council of India. The presence of practicing family physicians on the National Medical Commission should be mandatory.