NMC Tightens Checks on Medical Colleges with Surprise Inspections by Faculty Teams
New Delhi: In order to remove administrative misconduct and the long-lasting problems of ghost faculty in India’s Medical Education System. The National Medical Commission (NMC) has announced plans to build a national faculty pool. This group of experienced medical professionals will carry out strict and surprise inspections in the medical colleges all over India. By this, NMC is trying to make a move from planned inspections to unannounced, surprise, and real-time inspections.
Over the years, Indian medical colleges have faced criticism for appointing faculty who are hired temporarily during scheduled inspections, just to meet the requirements. And once the inspections are over, they would disappear without a sign.
The Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) of NMC is planning to introduce a flexible and real inspection system to address this issue. Letters were issued on the 22nd and 26th of December asking all the government medical colleges to identify eligible candidates to serve under the NMC Act, 2019.
This new faculty pool will include senior teachers from different medical specialties. And all the members will be carefully selected based on their expertise, experience, and ethical standards. These inspectors will be chosen from a central list.
Therefore, NMC’s focus is to ensure that they have no personal or professional connections with the colleges they get assigned to inspect. This may result in reduced bias and conflicts.
These surprise inspections will not be like the ones before. They will not only check buildings and equipment but will also verify that the teaching staff are genuinely present and students have access to sufficient clinical exposure.
The NMC has planned to use tools like the Aadhaar-Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS) and the Health Management Information System (HMIS) to track faculty attendance. The colleges may face serious problems if the attendance data shown on digital systems does not match the data shown during the surprise visits.
It is being said that these might include heavy fines, a reduction in student seats, or the recognition of the college can be completely withdrawn.
A senior NMC official said, “The main focus is to protect the quality of education provided to medical students.” Because of the hiring of temporary faculty members, students lose regular guidance, continuity of teaching, and proper clinical training. But if the NMC is introducing surprise inspections, the colleges are likely to follow the rules throughout the year.
The official also said that “This approach might make it harder for the colleges to manipulate the system. They will have to maintain proper staff and standards every single day rather than relying on short-term solutions.”
As the NMC creates this national faculty pool, medical colleges have been asked to update information on digital platforms regularly. The commission has clearly stated that it will not tolerate fake details about faculty strength or hospital facilities.
With this, the NMC has made it clear that the quality of training for future doctors must not be compromised. A new era of constant monitoring, responsibility, and accountability has begun.
