Quackery concerns rise in Kerala as union government makes national medical register voluntary

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Enforcement agencies and medical associations fighting quackery find themselves at a crossroads following the Union government's decision to make the National Medical Register (NMR) voluntary for medical professionals. These stakeholders had high hopes for the NMR as a comprehensive, credible national database of modern medicine practitioners that would allow the public to verify credentials. However, those expectations have been dampened after the Union Health Ministry quietly rolled back the earlier mandate requiring all doctors to enrol. With the rollback, the NMR will now be compiled using data submitted by state medical councils, rather than through direct applications by medical professionals. Health activists have raised concerns about the reliability of state-level data, pointing to delays in updating the Kerala State Medical Council (KSMC) database since 2019. While over 106,000 doctors are registered in the state, only around 67,000 entries are publicly accessible. There is no publicly verifiable single database of all registered medical practitioners in Kerala. The delay in creating the NMR allows quacks to operate undetected, said Dr. Ashik Basheer, State President of the General Practitioners Association (GPA), which has long advocated for a streamlined verification process. GPA's efforts have led to the exposure of several impostors posing as registered doctors. Although only duly registered professionals are legally permitted to practice, cases involving MBBS students, dropouts, nurses, and foreign-trained but unqualified individuals continue to surface. Obtaining information from KSMC is a daunting task. Even enforcement agencies, including the health department's vigilance wing, hesitate due to the lack of an easily verifiable system, Dr. Ashik added. The NMR portal, launched on August 23 last year, aimed to create a unified national registry of around 13 lakh doctors. Yet, only 996 doctors registered in the first year, reportedly due to a cumbersome process. The low numbers reflect the complicated registration procedure. Now that the system will rely on state council databases, there still needs to be a functional and transparent state-level register, said RTI activist Dr. K.V. Babu. Meanwhile, KSMC officials have pointed fingers at the National Medical Commission (NMC) for the confusion. There was a delay in setting up a public state register because the NMC moved ahead with the NMR discussions. We will be launching our own state-level register soon, said a KSMC official. Dr. Harikumaran Nair GS, President of the Kerala State Medical Council for Modern Medicine, did not respond to calls from the TNIE .