In a first the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued new guidelines aimed at identifying "fake patients" in medical colleges and institutions seeking approval for new establishments or an increase in undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) seats.

The guidelines are aimed at addressing concerns about medical institutions admitting fake patients—individuals who do not require inpatient treatment—just to meet bed occupancy requirements. These guidelines are being introduced after instances were reported where some medical institutions or colleges admitted fake patients (i.e., individuals who do not require treatment or inpatient care) to fulfill bed occupancy and investigation requirements.

According to the guidelines, admission of large numbers of patients on the day of inspection or the previous day, admission of multiple patients from the same family or the admitted patients having no or minor problems which can be treated on OPD basis with oral medications, could be a parameter for identifying "fake patients".

Patients, who are admitted without any evidence of investigations like X-ray, blood tests etc. (before or after admission) or treatment which is generally done for admitted patients like intravenous (IV) fluid, injections, catheterization, giving medicines etc can also be an indication.

Another parameter assessors should keep in mind is if most of the admitted children are found to be playful and joyous without any significant problem in the paediatric ward or if they observe that patients were admitted in large numbers through preventive health checkups or camps.

The NMC has laid down the guidelines while inviting applications for establishment of new medical colleges/institutions intending to offer undergraduate courses and increase in the number of UG seats in established medical/institutions for the Academic year (AY)2025-2026.

The Commission said "fake patient practice" will be considered as a serious violation and will invite punishment as per the regulations.

For the purpose of training the students, certain minimum clinical exposure of patients have been defined in the minimum standards of requirements criteria of undergraduate and postgraduate in the form of bed occupancy requirements, etc.      "It has been observed for a long time that some medical institutions/ colleges indulge in admitting fake patients (people who do not require any treatment or in-patient treatment) to fulfil the requirement of bed occupancy, investigation, etc," the NMC said.

As per the guidelines, the Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) will choose the best possible team of assessors for optimal output.

For UG courses, assessment will be conducted for one or more days and for PG courses, assessment will be conducted for one or more days.