New Delhi: National Medical Commission (NMC) completes five years on Thursday without having heard a single complaint from a patient, having rejected all of those it has received. This, despite being a body meant to regulate the medical profession in public interest, for the safety of the public.
Hundreds of complaints and appeals filed by patients or their families have been rejected ever since NMC came into existence on Sept 25, 2020.
The draft amendment of the NMC Act which was put in public domain by the health ministry in Dec 2022, contains a provision that specifically provides for the public (patients/their relatives/complainants) to file appeals before NMC’s Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) against decisions or actions of state medical councils in complaints related to medical negligence or professional misconduct.
File noting acquired using Right to Information shows that the draft amendment was approved in 2023. However, the file hasn’t moved since then.
The health ministry, under which NMC operates, told Parliament in Aug – in response to an MP’s query asking if there was “bias in favour of doctors at the expense of the patients” in the NMC – that the mechanism to handle complaints of professional misconduct by doctors was provided in clause 8.8 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
What it did not reveal was that NMC’s EMRB division continues to reject patients’ appeals, reiterating that an appeal from a non-RMP (someone not a registered medical practitioner or doctor) cannot be accepted by it since Section 30 (3) of the NMC Act states that medical professionals aggrieved by state council decisions can appeal before the EMRB.
“Even though nothing in Section 30 (3) expressly bars patients from filing appeals, NMC, in its meeting held in Oct 2021, decided that only appeals of doctors will be allowed. The word ‘only’ was inserted by NMC.
It doesn’t exist in Section 30 (3). Moreover, RTI replies make it clear that NMC took such a decision without availing any legal opinion,” pointed out Dr K V Babu, an ophthalmologist and RTI activist who has followed the issue of patients’ right to appeal over several years.
Since the ethics regulations haven’t been replaced, the old regulation of 2002 – which allows patient appeals – would be applicable, as confirmed by the health ministry’s response in Parliament. However, rejections have continued.
After several representations regarding this bias against patients, NMC in its 14th meeting held in May 2024, decided to hear patients’ appeals, and the decision was approved in the 16th meeting in Dec 2024.
The minutes of this meeting stated: “NMC has agreed that all appeals received by EMRB will be entertained”.
