Doctors urge National Medical Commission to simplify centralised registration process

The National Medical Register (NMR) brought in by the Health Ministry to have a consolidated list of allopathic doctors in India is facing problems as mismatch in details of Aadhar, State medical board registration (including spellings of name, surname) is causing confusion for doctors who want to register with the NMR. They say that they are now required to file affidavits to establish their identity which according to the doctors is causing confusion and delay. Doctors are demanding that their State registration should automatically be converted into national registration by the Central government.

The register is maintained by the National Medical Commission (NMC) and is a dynamic, centralised repository that contains the name, address, and qualifications of licensed medical practitioners. The NMR also verifies the authenticity of doctors using Aadhaar IDs. All doctors registered on the Indian Medical Register (IMR) must re-register on the NMR, as per the Government order.

The NMR portal also allows users to search for registered medical practitioners in India and while some data on the NMR is visible to the public, other data is only visible to certain organisations and individuals. To register on the NMR, doctors need their – Aadhaar ID, digital copy of their MBBS degree certificate and registration certificate of the State Medical Council/Medical Council of India. 

“This is where the problem is happening,’’ Indian Medical Association national president, K.V. Asokan said. He said that the Association is getting feedback from many doctors across India and among the most common complaints is that the registration process is complex and cumbersome.

The Association, while acknowledging the benefits of the system including weeding out unqualified persons and bringing in the ease for doctors practicing in multiple states, said that they will request the NMC to look at the problems doctors are encountering currently and seek for it to be rectified. 

Speaking about the issue and the problem he is facing, physician from Kerala and health rights activist K.V. Babu said that in his State alone several doctors are facing problems as their names differ in their degrees, State medical councils and Aadhar. 

“We want a simple registration process and ideally the MBBS degree and State medical councils registration certificates should be sufficient for registration,’’ he said.