Centre to launch national register for citizens to track doctors’ credentials

Soon patients will be able to check the credentials of a doctor, like his registration and license, before visiting.

The central government is mulling the launch of national registers for various healthcare personnel for citizens under the One Nation One Register programme, a senior government official said.

The programme aims to give citizens information regarding the doctors who are available in their locality, if the doctor they are going to has a valid licence and is registered with the national registry.

The first such registry for dentists was launched by Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday. The National Dental Register (NDR) is an online database of all dental practitioners in India.

The NDR database is a part of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) and the National Health Mission (NHM) to provide unique identification to healthcare providers. The new dental register will be different from the current Indian Dentists Register (IDR), which is updated by the several state dental councils but maintained by the Dental Council of India (DCI).

According to data available on the DCI website, more than 319,000 dentists are currently registered under the IDR. However, the registry is not amenable to anomalies. “The additions by state dental councils sometimes lead to redundancy and repetition of data,” an official said on the condition of anonymity.

The new NDR will not have any additions or updates from state councils. According to an official overseeing the ABDM, dentists will now be able to apply for registration on the national site. “The role of the state council will be to verify the applications for registration,” the official added.

Speaking at the launch event of the new dental registry, Kiran Gopal Vaska, Director, IT and Policy Coordination, ABDM and PMJAY said that the NDR is one of the many databases being created under the ‘One Nation One Register’ programme. “Similar registers will be launched for doctors and nursing personnel, which will later be linked with the Healthcare Professionals Register (HPR) under the ABDM,” he said.

Commenting on the step to launch national registers for healthcare professionals, Neeraj Verma, Senior Consultant and Dental Advisor, Dental Department, Indraprastha Apollo Hospital said that the central registration would not only curb redundancy in data but also help organisations to authenticate the background of medical professionals.

The government is also looking to launch a national medical register for all practising doctors in the country. According to estimates, there are currently more than 1.5 million practising doctors in India, who are registered with the National Medical Commission (NMC). “It would also include information about around 565,000 AYUSH doctors,” according to an official.

• Government is mulling to launch national registers for doctors, nursing professionals and healthcare facilities.
• New National Dental Register will look to curb redundancy in data of practicing dentists.
• According to DCI, more than 319,000 dentists are currently registered under the old dental register.
• According to estimates, around 1.5 million doctors are currently registered with NMC.
• The new medical register would include AYUSH practitioners, along with allopathic doctors.

Business Standard