Fourteen years after the first attempt to update the national register of doctors, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has once again proposed introducing mandatory re-registration for approximately 1.1 million doctors in India via its web portal.
This proposal was presented through suggested amendments to the rules governing licensing and registration. The previous attempt, which took place in August 2024, showed low engagement: by December last year, only about 32,000 doctors had applied (3%), and only 1,800 people were approved for registration (0.2%).
Dr. K.V. Babu, an ophthalmologist and one of the 32,000 doctors who used the portal, criticized this initiative. He stated that instead of requiring re-registration from all 1.1 million doctors to identify those who might no longer practice, the commission could use updated registers from state medical councils.
According to Dr. Babu, the commission could launch a deduplication program and contact only those about whom there are doubts. For the rest of the doctors, a unique identification number could simply be issued, as the current initiative is a repetition of an already unsuccessful experiment.