The National Medical Commission (NMC) has repealed the 2023 Regulation on Maintaining Medical Education Standards. As a result of this repeal, all specific fines against medical institutions that fail to comply with established legal provisions, rules, or minimum standards cease to be in effect.
Any actions taken during the period these rules were in force remain unchanged. However, the NMC had not taken action against many colleges violating the rules, such as in cases of non-payment of scholarships to MBBS interns and postgraduate students. Now, colleges may worry less about scholarship non-payment since the NMC Law does not stipulate a fine for such a violation.
Without an assessment, the disclosed information from medical colleges will merely constitute unverified statements. The law stipulates that the Medical Assessment and Rating Board can take measures, including issuing a warning, imposing a monetary fine, reducing enrollment, suspending admission, or recommending the withdrawal of recognition for a medical institution for non-compliance with minimum necessary standards.
Despite this repeal, the requirement to submit an annual disclosure report will continue to be in effect according to relevant sections of the NMC Law 2019, as per the cancellation announcement published on October 14. The NMC Law provides that the Undergraduate Medical Education Council and the Postgraduate Medical Education Council must determine the norms for mandatory annual disclosure by medical institutions.
Furthermore, the 2019 Law states that the MARB can assess any institute at any time without prior notice. However, after the repeal, aspects that were supposed to be included in the assessment report, such as checking physical infrastructure, the presence of the required number of faculty, and student feedback analysis, have been excluded.
Without an assessment by the MARB, the mandatory annual disclosure will simply become statements from the medical college, unconfirmed by independent expertise.