RMP meaning: registered medical practitioner What the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 says about registers, the bar to practice, and what a clinic shows patients.

A registered medical practitioner (RMP) is a person whose name is enrolled in a State Register or the National Register under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019, and section 34 of that Act allows only such a person to practise medicine as a qualified medical practitioner. The State Register is kept by the State Medical Council; the National Register is kept by the NMC's Ethics and Medical Registration Board. The number a council gives the doctor on enrolment is the NMC registration number that goes on the prescription pad.

What is a registered medical practitioner?

Someone on a register. The NMC Act does not use the phrase "registered medical practitioner" as a defined term; it works through two registers and the bar in section 34. Section 2(v) defines the State Register as "a register maintained under any law for the time being in force in any State or Union territory for registration of practitioners of medicine". Section 31(1) says the National Register will contain "the name, address, all recognised qualifications possessed by a licensed medical practitioner". Section 31(7) asks the Board to keep the two registers electronically synchronised, so a change in one shows in the other.

Doctors registered before the Act are covered by the proviso to section 33(1): a person registered in the Indian Medical Register under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 "shall be deemed to have been registered under this Act and be enrolled in the National Register".

Where does the rule come from?

Section 34(1) of the National Medical Commission Act, 2019 (No. 30 of 2019), published in the Gazette on 8 August 2019. It reads: "No person other than a person who is enrolled in the State Register or the National Register, as the case may be, shall ... (a) be allowed to practice medicine as a qualified medical practitioner; (b) hold office as a physician or surgeon or any other office, by whatever name called, which is meant to be held by a physician or surgeon; (c) be entitled to sign or authenticate a medical or fitness certificate or any other certificate required by any law to be signed or authenticated by a duly qualified medical practitioner". Clause (d) covers giving expert evidence on medicine in court. Section 34(2) sets the penalty: imprisonment up to one year, a fine up to five lakh rupees, or both.

What it means for a small clinic

Every document that carries a doctor's authority should carry the registration that gives it. Clause 1.4.1 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 says: "Every physician shall display the registration number accorded to him by the State Medical Council / Medical Council of India in his clinic and in all his prescriptions, certificates, money receipts given to his patients." At Sunrise Clinic, a sample clinic with one visiting consultant, that means the consultant's own number on the prescriptions and certificates the consultant signs, and on the receipt for the consultant's fee. The State Medical Councils page lists where each register can be checked.

In Vitels the doctor's registration is verified by the Vitels team at sign-up, and the prescription prints on the clinic letterhead with the registration number, on A4 or A5.

Is an AYUSH doctor an RMP under the NMC Act?

The NMC Act covers modern medicine. Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Sowa-Rigpa practitioners are enrolled under the National Commission for Indian System of Medicine Act, 2020, and homoeopaths under the National Commission for Homoeopathy Act, 2020, each with its own registers and its own section 34. See our AYUSH entry.