Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has raised objections to the much-publicised proposal of setting up a National Council for Human Resource in Health (NCHRH), an overarching regulatory body which was to be formed by an Act of Parliament after scrapping all other medical education regulatory bodies.

The Prime Minister, who presided over the final meeting of the task force on Friday, said he was not sure whether “centralising the entire medical education” was the right step and asked for more consensus and consultations on the issue. He asked the Health Ministry to send the proposal to the states and seek their views on it.

“He (the Prime Minister) did not rubbish the proposal completely, but said more ground work needs to be done,” said a source. “The Prime Minister was skeptical that entrusting the responsibility of the entire medical education to a few people was not without risk of giving rise to corruption.”

Besides the Prime Minister, the meeting was attended by the Health Minister and members of the task force which included prominent names like Public Health Foundation Of India president K S Reddy, eminent cardiologist Devi Shetty and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The proposal was to merge all the existing regulatory bodies like the Medical Council of India, Dental Council of India, Pharmacy Council of India, Nursing Council of India and councils under the Department of AYUSH and form a single body. The move aimed to set up the NCHRH as an over-arching regulatory body for the health sector to reform the current regulatory framework and enhance the supply of skilled personnel.

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