Fearing a third wave of the pandemic propelled by new variants~Delta, Delta- plus and others ~in the country that is already ravaged by the second wave of the novel coronavirus, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has directed
all medical colleges across states and union territories (UTs) to streamline training and certification systems among health professionals including doctors, nurses and other medical staff to combat the pandemic.
The NMC issued an advisory in this regard on 19 August alerting principal secretaries of health departments in respective states and UTs and principals of all medical colleges to decisively and effectively address the evolving challenge from Covid-19 and ensure a robust training network to train up healthcare professionals.
“All the health professionals including doctors, nurses and other clinical staff must undergo training and certification on clinical topics to ensure patient safety at all times. The skill training and verification is envisaged at the level of Covid hospitals and similar facilities including medical colleges, by utilizing the existing resources. Thus it is recommended that the skill laboratories of the medical colleges may be utilised and the equipment… (required)… may be made available from the existing resources,” the NMC advisory said.
The medical commission has also identified more than 120 lessons across 22 modules for the training. Several of these modules are clinical in nature and need onsite training. The training modules and the list of equipment required are specified in two annexes to the NMC’s advisory. They have also been put up on the commission’s website.
The skill training and verification have been envisaged at the level of Covid-care hospitals and similar facilities, including medical colleges, by utilising the existing resources. The NMC recommended that all skill laboratories of the medical colleges may be utilised for this purpose. All medical colleges have been advised to coordinate to conduct these training and set up infrastructure before 31 August.