National Medical Commission aims at bringing accountability and affordability: Tamilisai Soundararajan

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

She said that 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 National Medical Commission bill was passed on July 29, 2019, and was signed into act by the president on August 8, 2019.

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 developed countries like the USA also, the cost is not so 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.