Fake patients will be investigated in medical colleges before granting recognition, NMC issued new guidelines

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has decided to investigate fake patients in colleges before granting recognition. If the investigator confirms fake patients in his comment, it will be categorized as a serious violation and punitive action will be taken against the college. Apart from this, the financial condition of the colleges will also be investigated.

NMC has issued new guidelines regarding the assessment of medical colleges for the session 2025-2026. The commission said that for a long time, some medical institutions have been acting arbitrarily. At the time of inspection, fake patients are admitted. Despite this, they are admitted to the ward and added to the number of patients on the document. The fraud, against which action can be taken, is under the Establishment, Assessment, and Rating Exchange of Medical Institutions 2023 Act, said the NMC. For the medical colleges, NMC Secretary Dr. B Srinivas, through an order, explained that the process for recognition would continue till January 4, 2025. However, before that, the guidelines issued regarding the medical evaluation should be watched closely wherein it has been made mandatory to conduct deep investigation.

It has been mentioned in the guidelines that if a patient gets admitted directly without diagnosis or essential medical examination, then complete details about his medical condition shall have to be given. If his condition is not proven medically fit for admission, then the decision for punitive action against the college or to ban it may be taken.

NMC has also framed rules for the inspectors. Under this, all patients admitted recently will be examined at the time of inspection. It shall be noticed whether these patients could have been treated in the OPD, too. Similarly, if most of the children admitted to the pediatric ward are happy and playing, then it is clear that they have forcibly been kept in the hospital. The other condition is that if the same family has more than one member admitted to the hospital, then also it's suspected. In case the evaluator finds the fake patients, then he has been asked to fill in complete information in the given format. Further action will be taken by NMC itself.

NMC has exempted the government medical colleges from applying for additional seats from inspection. All the government colleges that already have recognition for PG medical seats and, hence, apply for extra seats, will simply have to file a self-declaration form based on the analysis of which the seats might get exempted from physical inspection. However, this rule will not apply to graduate seats.