The National Medical Commission (NMC) has now integrated the National Exit Test (NExT) as a prerequisite for PG medical admissions, while adding that NEET PG will continue until the first batch of NExT becomes eligible.

This follows the release of the draft Postgraduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER) 2023 by the Postgraduate Medical Education Board (PGMEB) of the National Medical Commission (NMC) in a recent Public Notice.

The draft Regulations titled "Post-graduate Medical Education Regulations-2023" or "PGMER-23" have been made by the NMC in exercise of the overall powers conferred by the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 in relation to medical education in general, and specifically by sub-section (1) of Section 25 and sub-section (2) of Section 57 of the said Act.

"These Regulations shall come into force from the date of their publication in the official gazette," NMC PGMEB mentioned in the Draft.

NMC in Chapter I of the Draft, has discussed the focus and goal of post-graduate medical education and the definitions of several terms used in the Draft such as "Act", "Commission", "Medical Institution", "MSR", "NEET-PG", "NEET-SS" etc.

As per the Draft Regulations, the focus and goal of post-graduate medical education shall be to produce competent specialist and /or Medical teacher recognized by the fraternity as the graduating scholar, building upon his undergraduate education, skills who shall –

i. Recognize the health needs of the community and carry out professional obligations ethically keeping in view the objectives of the national health policy;

ii. have mastered most of the competencies, pertaining to the respective Speciality, that is required to be practised at the secondary and the tertiary levels of the health care delivery system;

iii. be aware of the contemporary advances and developments in the respective discipline concerned and shall progress accordingly;

iv. have acquired a spirit of scientific inquiry and is oriented to the principles of research methodology and epidemiology;

v. have acquired the basic skills in the teaching of medical and paramedical professionals;

vi. acquire basic management skills in human resources, materials and resource management related to health care delivery, general hospital management, principal inventory skills and counselling;

vii. Develop personal characteristics and attitudes required for professional life such as personal integrity, sense of responsibility and dependability and ability to relate to or show concern for other individuals;

viii. become an exemplary citizen by observing the highest standards of professional ethics and working towards fulfilling social and professional obligations to respond to national aspirations.

The institutions imparting post-graduate medical education shall continually work to synchronize the institutional goals with the national goals to produce the kind of trained manpower with high knowledge, appropriate skills and impeccable ethical standards required.

Chapter-II of the Draft mentioned courses of specialities and components of post-graduate training. This includes the list of qualifications, duration of the course and components of post-graduate training, components of the post-graduate curriculum.

The issue of establishment of post-graduate medical institutions and starting of new post-graduate medical courses have been discussed in Chapter-III of the Draft. This chapter includes issues like permission, accreditation, increase of seats, monitoring of standards of medical education, and minimum standards of requirements.

Chapter-IV gives details regarding admission and counselling. It includes issues like eligibility criteria, conduct of NEET-SS, common counselling, admission schedule for Post-Graduate Broad Speciality courses, time schedule for completion of admission process for PG (super-speciality) medical courses, details about government appointed designated authority for common counselling, prohibition for any student seeking admission in ay other way than counselling, submission of final list, student migration, reservation of seats, feeder broad speciality qualifications for super speciality courses.

Details regarding training of Post-graduate students have been discussed in Chapter-V of the Draft. Such details include the period of training, and the issue of training programme such as common course work.

The issue of District Residency Programme has also been discussed in this chapter. It includes its objectives, definition of District Hospital, District health system, training and responsibilities of district residents, stipend and leave of district residents, training during DRP and certification, responsibility of medical institute, responsibility of State Governments/Union Territories, responsibility of National Medical Commission, constitution of national/state oversight mechanisms, launch of the district residency programme, etc.

Apart from this, the issue of model curriculum, stipend to postgraduate students, leave rules for postgraduate students, accommodation to postgraduate students, etc have also been discussed in this chapter.

Chapter VI of the Draft discussed about the Role of Universities, while the details about the Departments, units, faculty and senior residents have been mentioned in Chapter VII of the draft. The issue of examiners, examinations, valuation, number of examinations, metholodology have been discussed in detail in Chapter VIII.

The Draught also discusses sanction and penalty (Chapter IX) issues such as penalty for violation of regulations, miscellaneous (Chapter X) issues such as faculty development programme, animal experimentation, collaborative research, Amendments, saving clause, and repeal (Chapter XI), and so on.

Aside from that, it includes a list of recognised post-graduate broad speciality, post-graduate super speciality, post-graduate diploma, post-doctoral certificate courses, and post-doctoral fellowship qualifications. The schedule to the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, guidelines for admission of students with "specified disabilities" to Post-graduate courses in modern medicine under the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. The Draught also includes the Feeder broad speciality qualifications for super speciality courses.