In a significant step towards affordable medical education, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has notified its first major regulation titled as 'Minimum Requirements for Annual MBBS Admissions Regulations 2020'.
The notification issued today replaces the Minimum Standard Requirements for Medical Colleges, 1999 of the erstwhile Medical Council of India (MCI), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement.
The NMC along with four Autonomous Boards came into effect by the Central government from September, abolishing the decade-old institution of the MCI.
The new regulation will be applicable to all new medical colleges proposing to be established and to the established medical colleges proposing to increase their annual MBBS intake from the academic year 2021-22.
During the transitory period, the established medical colleges will be governed by the relevant regulations existing prior to the current notification.
The new standards have been defined keeping the functional requirements of the institution(s). These allow optimization and flexibility in utilising available resources, and harnessing modern educational technology tools to facilitate moving towards quality education, even when resources are relatively scarce, the statement said.
The new regulation has deleted the quantum of land required for setting up a medical college and its affiliated teaching hospitals. It defines the minimum requirements of space for all student-centric areas in the institution and the functional areas required.
A well-equipped skills laboratory' for training students has been made essential. Moreover, student counselling services have been mandated recognising the increasing stress observed amongst medical students and residents in recent times.
Recognising that a well-functioning hospital is at the core of medical training, the new regulation now mandates the availability of a fully functional 300-bed multi-speciality hospital for at least 2 years at the time of application for establishing a new medical college.
The human resource of teaching faculty has also been rationalised in the new regulation.
Two new teaching departments have now become mandatory in all medical college hospitals for the training of undergraduate medical students. These include the department of Emergency Medicine, which has replaced the earlier casualty department and will ensure access and prompt, an appropriate response to emergencies particularly trauma; and the department of physical medicine and rehabilitation which shall fill a large gap for those in need of comprehensive rehabilitative care.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor