In India, the National Medical Commission (NMC) is introducing a new framework to alter the accreditation procedure for medical colleges in Maharashtra. The existing system, managed by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), is judged inadequate for evaluating medical facilities.
The NMC intends to establish the National Board of Accreditation for Medical Sciences to ensure that all medical colleges in the country follow a standardized methodology. The new accreditation method would be based on 11 criteria, such as surgeries and infrastructure. This adjustment is intended to address concerns about universities luring students who do not meet medical science requirements.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) will release a new framework for accreditation of roughly 65 medical colleges in Maharashtra on August 6.
Medical colleges are currently accredited by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), a Central Government-run entity that evaluates higher education institutions.
According to an NMC official, NAAC is not competent to examine a medical institution, hence the Centre has proposed the establishment of the National Board of Accreditation for Medical Sciences.
“The 2019 National Medical Commission Bill includes a change in the accreditation process.” It will standardize the accrediting process for all medical colleges in the country. Previously, health universities would assess a medical college’s infrastructure and other facilities, while certain schools, particularly private ones, would seek NAAC accreditation to recruit students,” the source explained.
According to Dr. Pravin Shingare, former director of the Maharashtra Directorate of Medical Education and Research, many medical colleges have received A+ grading from NAAC but lack enough infrastructure, hence NMC has restricted the number of seats in those institutes.
“NAAC accreditation was based on broad criteria such as student-teacher ratio, infrastructure, research activities, and so on.” “The new accreditation system will scrutinize medical colleges on 11 parameters, including the number of critical surgeries, general surgeries, super-specialty, outpatient and inpatient numbers, and whether the institution has the infrastructure to match them,” he said.
According to the dean of a public medical college, many private medical institutions exploit NAAC certification to lure students even if they do not match the medical science criteria. “It’s great that the new board will accredit all 5,000 medical colleges in the country.”
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