Old Wine In A New Bottle

But for the Modi government’s communications failure, the National Medical Commission Bill could have brought landmark reforms in healthcare

- Swadeep Srivastava

THE NATIONAL Medical Commission Bill, 2017, (NMC Bill) introduced by the Central Government is – or rather was − a landmark legislation. Succumbing to a powerful lobby of doctors and associations, the Bill has now been diluted. The original Bill was drafted after deep thought, but not properly communicated to the stakeholders. This lack of communication led to the perception that the Bill was being foisted on doctors, medical associations and medical colleges.

This lack of communication and failure to take stakeholders into confidence through dialogues led to changes in the Bill through a series of amendments. This could have been avoided had robust and transparent communication lines been first established between the government and the stakeholders.

The lack of communication is best highlighted in the way the amendments dropped the progressive and intended provision of a “bridge course” for AYUSH practitioners. The thought behind this move was to address the woeful lack of medical practitioners in rural areas. But the perception among doctor communities was that these AYUSH practitioners would be a challenge to practitioners of modern medicine and would replace them or compete with them in medical practice!