only 284 out of 6,500 doctors approved on national medical register portal, ET HealthWorld
New Delhi: Three and a half months after the launch of the National Medical Register (NMR) portal, less than 6,500 doctors have registered, and only 284 have been approved, reported TOI. At the current pace, it would take 40 years to register the estimated 12 lakh doctors practicing in India and complete the approval process for those already registered.
Union Health Minister J P Nadda had inaugurated the NMR Portal of the National Medical Commission (NMC), aiming to register all MBBS doctors eligible for practice in India.
“The uniqueness of NMR is that it is linked with Aadhaar ID of the doctors which ensures the individual’s authenticity,” a statement from the health ministry told TOI. It added that the portal, developed in collaboration with the National Health Authority (NHA) and NMC, would provide dynamic, authentic, and consolidated data on doctors.
Despite the government’s claim that the “speedy and easy registration process on the portal will facilitate the timely updation of the data,” many doctors have faced significant challenges, noted TOI.
Dr. KV Babu, an ophthalmologist and RTI activist, shared his frustration with TOI, saying, “I registered on the portal on Aug 24, the day after it was opened. The Kerala State medical council approved and confirmed my registration to NMC. Yet during the last 110 days, my application has been returned with irrelevant queries four times, which include queries on the change in the names of the University and the state medical council. They have asked me to file an affidavit regarding the name in Aadhaar card not matching the existing registration, which predates Aadhaar. Even today, my registration is not done.”
The NMR portal was mandated under Section 31 of the NMC Act, 2019.
A senior doctor who retired from a government college raised concerns about the system’s inefficiency, saying, “If they cannot put together a digital database for just 12 lakh doctors who come through a highly regulated education system, can you imagine them being able to create databases for other categories in healthcare who would be well over 50 lakh and whose training is very poorly regulated?”
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