There will be new regulatory agency in India to regulate health education by enforcement of a new bill being tabled in the Parliament of India in the monsoon session of August 2010 for the formation of an agency called the "National Council for Human Resource in Health in India –NCHRH”. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has approved the revised draft for the proposed NCHRH Bill which will be an overarching body for the health sector.[1][2][3]
Becoming a doctor in India will be more difficult once the said regulatory authority starts functioning, which is expected to be at any time from August 2010 onwards. The agency will also bring about overall transparency, eliminating the present, alledgedly corrupt admission formalities in the field of medical education. From the next academic year, i.e. 2011, onwards there will be a common MBBS entrance test (single PMT) replacing the over 17 All India Pre Medical Test(PMTs) conducted all over the country for over 35,000 undergraduate seats. But Tamil Nadu has moved the Supreme Court challenging this decision of single common test for all India.[4] The second major change will be the National Exit Examination (Screening Test ) for students graduating from Indian medical colleges.[5][6][7]
The new draft proposes a National Committee for Accreditation and a National Medical Education and Training Board that will register and accredit medical colleges and prepare curricula for all streams of education in the health sector. The powers of the existing councils, including the Medical Council of India, will be substantially reduced and they will deal only with licensing, continuing education and ethics. These bodies, though under the general supervision of the NCHRH, will be entirely independent in their structure and functioning, and will consist of senior professional, selected or nominated through a rigorous process. The NCHRH will be a 15-member body. The original NCHRH Bill was re-drafted after several States raised objections on the ground that the body was highly centralized and would usurp the powers of the States. The re-constituted task force on NCHRH held several rounds of consultations in New Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai before coming up with the revised version.[8][9]