What’s the news: India’s medical practitioners will now have to get a mandatory Unique Identification (UID) number to continue working in India, as per the gazette notification issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC). As per the "Registration of Medical Practitioners and Licence to Practice Medicine Regulations, 2023," doctors across the country will have to register in the National Medical Register to get a centrally generated UID number. This number will be created by the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) and the NMC. The certificate of licence required to practice medicine in India will contain a registration number created using this UID number with a suffix denoting the code of the relevant State/Union Territory. Why it matters: In 2021, the National Health Authority had released a consultation paper on the creation of a Health Professionals Registry under the National Digital Health Mission (now known as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission). At the time, doctors, various professional bodies, and registered medical societies raised concerns about the digital infrastructural gaps that could complicate the process. These concerns are not new and have been flagged at the state-level as well. Experts have talked time and again about the lack of internet connectivity, digitised record keeping, etc. However, an important concern raised about such a registry was the legal implication. During the earlier consultation, doctors asked for a grievance redressal mechanism in case of legal actions against them due to the technological malfunctioning of such a platform. The notification as it is now…
