The Central government has sought the views of state governments on a proposal to set up all-India services for doctors on the pattern of IAS and IPS. Such a proposal was mooted five and a half decades ago, but it's being acted upon now to coordinate efforts to prevent any global epidemic. In a letter dated June 9 to chief secretaries of states, Union Health Secretary C K Mishra said "the creation of an All India Medical Service under the All India Service Act 1951, like IAS, IPS, etc. for creating a body of professional doctors across the country has been under the consideration of the government for quite some time. Considering the fact that health is a state subject and the major requirement of health professionals is at the state level, it has been decided to solicit the views of all state governments on this issue." The letter stated that doctors of the Central Health Service (a Group A service under the health ministry dealing with monitoring of various health programs/schemes) have never worked in the states and hence "do not have an appropriate perspective on the problems being faced by the state governments". Creating the All India Medical Service could help bridge this gap and "improve technical leadership and management both at the Centre and state levels," the letter said. The idea of setting up an all-India medical service was also endorsed in 2005 in a report of the National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health (NCMH), which was chaired jointly by then finance minister P Chidambaram and health minister A Ramadoss. The NCMH had stated that it was necessary to take a bold decision "to constitute an All India Cadre of Public Heath Services, on lines like the IAS/IPS".