National Medical Commission to herald a new era in medical education: Governor

Hyderabad, Oct 24: Governor Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan said on Saturday that the newly constituted National Medical Commission (NMC) will herald a new era of medical education in the country.

The NMC is aimed at bringing in transparency, accountability and affordability and will end the corrupt practices in medical education in the country. Establishment of NMC is a great reform by the Central government.

The Governor was addressing the webinar on the “Importance of National Medical Commission,” organised by the Centre for Healthcare Management, Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad.

Expressing concern over the spiralling costs of the medical education in the country, Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan pointed out that as the medical education getting costlier, students from downtrodden sections and other underprivileged sections were not entering into the medical education.

“It has become an unhealthy norm that only the affluent are entering into medical education. The NMC will ensure equal access to all the sections to pursue medical education,” she added.

Referring to the high investments, Dr. Tamilisai Soundararajan stated that it was unfortunate that a massive investment of Rs 400 crore, huge area of land and at least 140 faculty members were required to start a medical college.

“Even in the developed countries like USA also, the cost is not such high. After investing heavily, the medical college managements were not willing to do service. This must end and medical education costs need to come down making it affordable to all,” the Governor said.

She stated that the Central government has launched definitive steps to increase the medical seats and targets to produce one lakh medical graduates a year to meet the growing requirements for medical services in rural areas.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has increased the number of medical seats by 48 per cent during the last six years,” she added.

Dr. P. Raghu Ram, Chairman ASCI Hospital Management Academic Advisory Board, Dr. Nirmalya Bagchi, in-charge Director General, ASCI, Dr. Valli Manickam and Dr. Subodh Kandamuthan were among others who spoke.

-Press note