The National Medical Commission Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 22. The Bill seeks to replace the Medical Council of India with a new body - National Medical Commission. The Commission will regulate medical education in India. The most talked about point of the new Bill is that it does away with NEET PG exam, which up until now has been the eligibility-cum-entrance exam for admission to postgraduate broad-specialty medical courses in medical institutions.
NEET UG will continue to be the entry exam for MBBS and BDS courses and NEET SS will continue to be the entrance test for admission to PG Super-Specialty courses.
However, NMC does away with NEET PG exam which is conducted for admission to Postgraduate medical courses. Instead of a separate entrance exam, a common exit exam will be conducted, a provision which also found its way into the Draft National Education Policy 2019. The exit exam will be conducted in the final year of MBBS will be called National Exit Test or NEXT.
NEXT will serve multiple purposes. One, it will replace NEET PG and will be the entrance exam for postgraduate courses in medicine. Two, the exam will be held for granting licence to practice medicine as medical practitioners and for enrolment in the State Register or the National Register. Three, it will be the qualifying criteria for anyone with a foreign medical qualification for the purpose of obtaining licence to practice medicine as medical practitioner and for enrolment in the State Register or the National Register.
A Bridge Course for Ayush practitioners to practice modern medicine to a limited extent, a provision which found a place in the NMC Bill introduced in 2017, has been removed.
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