Strong medicine

A new cure should not make health care suffer more

The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, now before a standing committee of Parliament, offers the chance to reform a critical area of social infrastructure in the world’s second-most populous country. The reference to the standing committee was principally in response to the threat of a nation-wide strike by the Indian Medical Association, a lobby of 300,000 doctors that fears the NMC, with which the Bill proposes to replace the 61-year-old Medical Council of India (MCI) as the regulatory body, will introduce a draconian regime. The self-serving concerns of a profession that has done little to enhance its reputation can be