The National Medical Commission has launched the National Medical Register Portal at https://nmr-nmc.abdm.gov.in/nmr/v3/. The Portal seeks Aadhaar number and mandatory acceptance of Terms and Conditions that are not mandated by any law. The poartal also has several glitches. These issues need to be fixed and until then, the portal must be withdrawn.
The Terms and Conditions that are made mandatory to be agreed and accepted for registering on the Portal are unacceptable.
These Terms and Conditions state as below:
I, hereby declare that I am voluntarily sharing my Aadhaar Number and demographic information issued by UIDAI, with National Medical Register (NMR) for the sole purpose of creation of User ID. I understand that my User ID can be used and shared for purposes as may be notified by NMR from time to time. Further, I am aware that my personal identifiable information (Name, Address, Age, Date of Birth, Gender and Photograph) may be made available to the entities working in the National Medical Register Ecosystem which inter alia includes stakeholders and entities such as National Medical Council, State Medical Council, Medical Colleges, National Board of Examination, which are registered with or linked to the National Medical Register, and various processes there under. I authorize NMR to use my Aadhaar number for performing Aadhaar based authentication with UIDAI as per the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 for the aforesaid purpose. I understand that UIDAI will share my e-KYC details, on response of “Yes” with NMR upon successful authentication. I consciously choose to use Aadhaar number for the purpose of availing benefits across the NMR. I am aware that my personal identifiable information excluding Aadhaar number / VID number can be used and shared for purposes as mentioned above. I reserve the right to revoke the given consent at any point of time as per provisions of Aadhaar Act and Regulations.
These Terms and Conditions are unacceptable. The statement therein that my User ID can be used and shared for purposes as may be notified by NMR from time to time seeks a blanket permission to share the User ID with anyone for any purpose that the NMC so decides, about which the RMP is not made aware of at the time of agreeing to accept them. The statements that personal identifiable information (Name, Address, Age, Date of Birth, Gender and Photograph) may be made available to the entities working in the National Medical Register Ecosystem which inter alia includes stakeholders and entities such as National Medical Council, State Medical Council, Medical Colleges, National Board of Examination, which are registered with or linked to the National Medical Register, and various processes there under, that NMR (can) use my Aadhaar number for performing Aadhaar based authentication with UIDAI as per the provisions of the Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act, 2016 for the aforesaid purpose, and that UIDAI will share my e-KYC details, on response of “Yes” with NMR upon successful authentication are completely unrelated to the purpose of registration under the National Medical Register and also are very intrusive and threat to my privacy and security. Making such Terms and Conditions and Aadhaar linking a mandatory requirement for registration under this NMR Portal is completely unacceptable and not mandated by any law.
Aadhaar linking cannot be made a mandatory requirement for registration under this NMR Portal as it is not mandated by any law.
The existing laws regarding registration of medical professionals in India are cited here below:
The National Medical Commission Act, 2019
Sec 33. (1): … a person who has been registered in the Indian Medical Register maintained under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 prior to the coming into force of this Act and before the National Exit Test becomes operational under sub-section (3) of section 15, shall be deemed to have been registered under this Act and be enrolled in the National Register maintained under this Act.
The Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023:
Sec 5. National Medical Register (i): The Ethics and Medical Registration Board shall maintain a National Register of medical practitioner. The National Register shall contain all the entries of the registered medical practitioners of all State Register maintained by the State Medical Councils.
Sec 11. Transitory Provisions: All the existing medical practitioner enrolled in the Indian Medical Register or the State Medical Register, not having the registration number as per these Regulation shall update in the web portal of the Ethics & Medical Registration Board within a period of three months of publishing of these Regulation and obtain the Registration Number as a onetime measure and the licence so generated shall be valid for period of five years from the date of issuance. For the purpose of updating of licence of such medical practitioner, no fee shall be charged by EMRB, NMC.
The Indian Medical Council Act, 1956
Sec (15) (1) Subject to the other provisions contained in this Act, the medical qualifications included in the Schedules shall be sufficient qualification for enrolment on any State Medical Register,
Sec 21 (1) The Council shall cause to be maintained in the prescribed manner a register of medical practitioners to be known as the Indian Medical Register, which shall contain the names of all persons who are for the time being enrolled on any State Medical Register and who possess any of the recognised medical qualifications
Sec 23 The Registrar of the Council, may, on receipt of the report of registration of a person in a State Medical Register or on application made in the prescribed manner by any such person, enter his name in the Indian Medical Register: Provided that the Registrar is satisfied that the person concerned possesses a recognised medical qualification.
Considering all these provisions of all the relevant laws and regulations, it is very clear that the medical qualifications included in the Schedules of the IMC Act shall be sufficient qualification for enrolment on any State Medical Register and thereby in the Indian Medical Register, and once registered under the State and Indian Medical Register, names of all such Registered Medical Practitioners shall be contained in the National Medical Register, without imposing any fresh conditions or qualifications. Further, the word Aadhaar doesn’t even find any mention in the IMC Act 1956, or the NMC Act 2019, or the Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023. Therefore, no new conditions or qualifications, including the likes of Aadhaar, can be imposed for registering the names on the NMR for all the RMPs already registered under the IMC Act 1956.
Consent for sharing of User ID, Personal information and e-KYC cannot be sought mandatorily
According to Sec 5 (ii) of the Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023, The National Medical Register shall be made available to the public by placing it on the website of the National Medical Commission and shall display the following information in respect of a medical practitioner: a) Registration No. b) Name: c) Father’s Name d) Date of Registration e) Place of Working (Name of the Hospital/Institute) f) Medical qualification including additional medical qualification g) Specialty h) Year of passing i) University j) Name of the Institute(s)/University(s) (Where qualification obtained). Therefore, the Terms and Conditions that now mandatorily seek acceptance for registration under the NMR, stating that User ID, personal identifiable information (Name, Address, Age, Date of Birth, Gender and Photograph), Aadhaar based authentication and e-KYC details shall be shared by the NMR/NMC, is beyond the provisions made in the Sec 5(ii) stated above. Therefore, no such approval can be sought by the NMR/NMC from the registered medical practitioners.
NMR Portal cannot be linked to ABDM Ecosystem
It is noticed that the NMR Portal is hosted on https://nmr-nmc.abdm.gov.in/nmr/v3, as a sub-domain of https://abdm.gov.in/. Hosting the NMR as a sub-domain of the ABDM raises many questions and doubts, about the need for such a mechanism as well as about the protection of such data on this unrelated domain, without obtaining explicit consent from the registering medical practitioner.
It is well known that the ABDM has been trying to enrol medical professionals under its Healthcare Professionals Registry. Although it has been clearly stated to be voluntary (https://hpr.ndhm.gov.in/en/faq), it is pertinent to note that in a letter [D.O. No S-12019/122/2021-NDHM-Part(2) dated August 12, 2024] posted on the website of ABDM (at https://abdm.gov.in:8081/uploads/DO_Letter_Engagement_of_councils_and_associations_across_all_systems_of_medicine_ea3969470a.pdf), coinciding with the launch of the NMR Portal, Dr Basant Garg, Additional CEO of NHA, has requested all the State Medical Councils and Associations to kindly recommend their registered healthcare providers to register themselves on the HPR. This too raises several questions about the intent of the NMR Portal seeking mandatory linking of Aadhaar number and seeking blanket permission for use of Aadhaar related information across several as yet untold platforms.
NMR Portal is not fully developed and must be halted immediately
Further, some of my colleagues who have tried to register their credentials have found that the names of the colleges and universities from where their qualifications were obtained 3-4 decades ago are not even listed on the portal, but only the names of these institutions as existing today have been listed. Such a portal makes the registration process difficult.
Summary
- The registration of medical practitioners must adhere only to the provisions of The Indian Medical Council Act, 1956, The National Medical Commission Act, 2019 and The Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023 and the only qualification/condition for registration, according to all these Acts and Regulations shall be the MBBS degree obtained from any medical college as per the Schedule of the IMC Act 1956. No new conditions can be imposed for registration.
- All the medical practitioners already registered in the State Medical Councils, and thereby in the Indian Medical Register, must be registered on the National Medical Register, as provided in The National Medical Commission Act, 2019 and The Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023, without any other conditions.
- Aadhaar linking and Aadhaar based authentication are not legally mandated under any of the existing laws for the registration of medical practitioners under the Indian Medical register or the National medical Register. Therefore, Aadhaar linking must be immediately withdrawn from the NMR portal and all the registered medical practitioners must be allowed to register and enter their credentials only on the basis of their existing registrations with respective State Medical Councils.
- The Terms and Conditions enumerated at the Portal must be changed. There should not be any terms or conditions that provide blanket permission to the NMC to share user ID, personal identifiable information (Name, Address, Age, Date of Birth, Gender and Photograph) and e-KYC of the registered medical practitioners with unknown or unnamed entities or the public.
- All the glitches such as incomplete lists and details of medical colleges and universities must be rectified.
- Until all these issues are fixed, the NMR portal must be shut down.