The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health and Family Welfare has summarily rejected the proposed National Commission for Human Resources in Health Bill (NCHRH) 2011, asking the Health Ministry to draft a fresh Bill giving more space to views of state governments and various stakeholders given that reforms in the sector are “long overdue”.
The committee also wants the ministry to include medical research (currently covered by the Higher Education and Research Bill 2011 of the HRD Ministry) under the proposed medical regulator.
The NCHRH Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 22, 2011, and forwarded to the panel for its consideration.
The proposed Bill seeks to replace the four existing health regulators — Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, the Pharmacists’ Council of India and the Nursing Council of India — with an umbrella body. Organisations such as the Indian Medical Association have rejected it on the ground that it would “stifle the democratic character of the existing bodies by substituting them with bodies under the commission which would have a nominative character instead of elective character as is under the present councils”.
The lack of election provisions has irked the parliamentary panel too. Apart from this and the need to accommodate stakeholders’ objections, the standing committee found fault with inadequate representation of professionals in the proposed structure as well as the proposal to abolish the National Board of Examinations.