A quarter of a century is time enough to justify a reassessment of any effort. About 25 years have passed since the existing Regulations on Graduate Medical Education (GMER) were notified in 1997, and the time was ripe to take a relook at all aspects of the system, and adapt them to changing requirements, including demography, socio-economic contexts, and advancements in science and technology. The National Medical Commission’s (NMC) new GMER, which was withdrawn without any explanation, attempted to catch up, and correct course, wherever necessary. The medical world is a changed place since the regulations were last drawn up, with emerging diseases, changing demands and expectations of stakeholders also altering the game dramatically. The new regulations aimed at making medical education more learner-centric, patient-centric, gender-sensitive, outcome-oriented and environment-appropriate, while continuing to anchor on the basic principles of teaching medicine. The regulations were progressive in introducing a longitudinal programme based on attitude, ethics, and communication competencies for young medical students, to lay stress on ethical values, being responsive to patient needs, and improved communication, early clinical experience — all skills young medicos will benefit from in the real world. It had specified that didactic lectures would not exceed a third of the schedule; while the bulk of the course would include interactive sessions, practicals, clinical experience, and case studies. Also introduced anew was a family adoption programme through village outreach, for each MBBS student, and a ‘pandemic module’. Other significant changes included reduction of the overall time period for students to complete the MBBS course to nine years (from 10), fixed number of attempts to clear papers, and common counselling for admission from 2024. If a student failed to clear any exam, he/she could have appeared in the supplementary examination, the results of which were to be processed within three-six weeks. The students, if successful, could have proceeded with the same batch.
A spring-cleaning of medical education in India is no doubt necessary to clear the cobweb remnants from the past. While a new GMER will enable the country’s medical students to be future-ready, the question needs to be asked if the system will be ready to handle the requirements of students who breach odds to climb up to a medical seat. As the NMC takes a step back, with withdrawing the regulations, perhaps it will pause to anticipate and face, with least confrontation, the opposition of several States to common counselling and the exit test.
