Separate higher council for medical education: Azad

NEW DELHI - Ruling out inclusion of medical education in the purview of the higher education council proposed by the human resource development (HRD) ministry, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad Tuesday said the process of creating a separate council for it was in an advanced stage.

“We have already reached far in formation of NCHRH (National Council for Human Resource in Health),” Azad said, after a meeting of the new six-member panel set up after the Medical Council of India (MCI) was dissolved.

The minister said that a draft of the NCHRH bill has been prepared by the ministry and copies of it have been circulated to state governments for response.

“Draft has been sent to the states and as many as 13 states have even given their reply,” he said.

Official sources said that the NCHRH bill may be tabled in the monsoon session of parliament.

Health Secretary Sujatha Rao said the health ministry will continue regulation of medical education through the proposed NCHRH as mentioned in the president’s address to the joint session of parliament last year.

“We will have our own NCHRH. We will set the standards in health education,” she said, adding that medical science can not be separated from health ministry.

“Medical science is a very specialised area and it cannot be divorced from actual health policy,” Rao said after an hour-long meeting with Human Resource Development Secretary Vibha Puri Das at the Health Ministry.

The meeting was held after HRD ministry pitched for inclusion of health education in the purview of the proposed National Council for Higher Education and Research (NCHER)

Das, meanwhile, said that her ministry is yet to take a final call on the NCHER bill.

“There were apprehensions about health education and NCHER. As on today, the task force has prepared the documents of NCHER. The ministry is yet to take a final view. It will take a decision in consultation with all ministries. We are discussing and working towards an agreed solution,” she said.

Stressing on the need for working in tandem with the health ministry for reaching a final conclusion, Das said the final decision will be taken for enhancing the quality of education in the country.

“We discussed the NCHER and how we can work in tandem with the other ministries. They (health ministry officials) are very positive about how to bring about the best possible reforms and what will be the best possible way forward so that we can improve the quality of higher education,” Das said.