Medical Regulation Without Consumer Safeguards: Revisiting the NMC Act, 2019

In a democratic country like India, healthcare of its citizen must be given top priority and for this purpose, the government must ensure proper Acts. Establishment of State Medical Councils (SMC’s) and Indian Medical Council (IMC) along with separate Acts, i.e., State Medical Council Act and Indian Medical Council Act, are instruments in this direction. In 2019, the name Indian Medical Council was changed to National Medical Commission (NMC) and a new Act known as National Medical Commission Act, 2019 (NMC Act 2019) was framed substituting Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 (IMC Act 1956). NMC has been established to reform and regulate medical education and ethical medical practises in India. This institution not only regulates and maintains uniformity and high standards in medical education across the country but also works for assessment and accreditation of different institutions working in the area of medical education. It regulates licencing and registration of medical professionals and enforces high professional standards and ethical practises by promoting research and innovations in the field of medical sciences. The present article is an attempt to examine the NMC Act, 2019 and its key provisions which directly affect the medical consumers and will examine whether this Act is safeguarding the interest of medical consumers or not. The article will also help the medical consumers in India to understand these specific provisions so that they may safeguard their interests and understand the critical issues which are creating hindrance in getting justice in the cases of medical negligence, malpractices and mismanagement committed by medical professionals. This article also examines the ‘Right to Appeal’ of both the parties, i.e., a medical consumer as well as the RMP whoever is aggrieved with the decision of SMC.