The aspirants who wish to pursue PG courses in medicine after their undergraduate studies till date had to qualify the NEET-PG exam. However, now the talk of the town is that the Health Ministry has drafted the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill with the proposal to do away with this exam.
This is a relief for the candidates who are aspiring to enroll in the MD/MS courses after their MBBS studies. Right now the changes regarding scrapping the NEET PG exam has been incorporated in the Bill on the directions of the Prime Minister’s Office.
If the changes are accepted then, the candidates can take admission in the MD/MS courses based on the final result of their MBBS courses. There will be no need to qualify any national level entrance test for PG admission or to get a license to practice.
As per the records available around 80,000 students take admission into MBBS courses in about 480 medical colleges in the country. This number goes as high as 1.5 lakh students appearing for entrance exams for admission to around 50,000 PG seats.
The history of the NMC bill:
The bill was initially intoduced in the year 2017. But it lapsed with the dissolution of the 16th Lok Sabha. Then the bill has proposed the following:
– The Bill sets up the National Medical Commission (NMC).
– NMC would be responsible for framing policies for regulating medical institutions and medical professionals
– It would also look after the assessments of the requirements of healthcare related human resources and infrastructure
– Also, framing guidelines for determination of fees for up to 40% of the seats in the private medical institutions and deemed universities which are regulated as per the Bill.
If the bill becomes a law then almost 1.5 lakh PG medical aspirants can take a sigh of relief. The bill will be sent to the cabinet soon, as per the official sources cited by many newspapers.
However, this doesn’t apply for the institutes like AIIMS. In AIIMS the candidates have to qualify a separate PG entrance exam for admission as usual. Also, as per the reports, the NEET super specialty exam for admission in the DM/MCh courses will go on.
NEET (National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test) is a national level medical entrance exam. The candidates who wish to take admission in the UG medical courses after 10+2 have to appear for the NEET UG exam. However, for the PG programmes, the candidates have to qualify the NEET PG. NEET UG is conducted by the National Testing Agency and NEET PG is held by the National Board of Examination (NBE)
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