News views 29.09.16

Dr. Rajesh Garg takes over as ACS, Hoshiarpur

                                      I am happy to inform that our senior member, Dr. Rajesh Garg has taken over as ACS Hoshiarpur. He replaces Dr. Rimpy Purewal who has taken voluntary retirement from service. Congratulations Dr. Garg.

Dr. Rajinder Sharma on various Committees of IMA Punjab.

                         The house will be pleased to know that Dr. RL Taneja President IMA Punjab has nominated Dr. Rajinder Sharma, President elect IMA Punjab in Governing Council,  Nursing Home & Hospitals Committee & in Awards Committee of IMA Punjab. Congratulations Dr. Sharma. You deserve all this.

Nation wide strike by Radiologist :  PCPNDT Rules to be amended soon  

                          The PCPNDT Act is planned to be amended by the Union Health Ministry, towards keeping record keeping out of the ambit of criminal provision following nationwide protests by radiologists. Under the Union Health Ministry, a committee has been formed based on meetings with radiologists, who have recommended separate record keeping provision from actual sex selection under the PCPNDT Act. Changes are planned in the next two months according to a senior government official. Guidelines for a three tier categorization of events are likely to be based on severity of violation towards making it more practical for fulfilling its desired purpose.

Maharashtra Government to Issue PCPNDT SOPs for Radiologists

       In first of its kind, A standard operating procedure (SOP) will be circulated by the Maharahstra government to radiologists in response to a recent strike against specific provisions of the PCPNDT act which they claimed are ‘arbitrary,’ ‘unfair,’ and ‘drastic.’ Health Minister Deepak Sawant stated ‘the Health Department will issue a couple of model forms to radiologists detailing how errors should be avoided while filing them. It will like be a standard operating procedure (SOP). There will be a categorization of errors as well, which will enable the health officials to take action. Minor errors will certainly not lead to any legal action against the practitioners.’

Doctors in Public Funded Institutions Have no Legal Right to Strike Work: Allahabad HC

               The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad in June asked authorities to penalise doctors responsible for the strike in King George's Medical University (KGMU) that caused undue harassment of hundreds of patients and pay Rs 25 lakh compensation each to the families who lost their dear ones allegedly due to negligence.

In a strong worded order on a public interest litigation (PIL) against the strike, the court said that doctors in public funded institutions have no legal right to strike and directed the state government to come up with a strict policy to deter doctors from striking work in future. The court said that such strikes justify major penalty and also criminal and tortuous liability if any patient suffers on account of such action of doctors.

 Highlights of the order:

* Bound by professional oath of saving lives, doctors have no legal or otherwise right to strike.

 High level committee to probe deaths caused due to negligence at KGMU, Rs 25 lakh compensation to victim families

* Compensation money to be recovered from allowances and salaries of striking doctors.

* Appraisal record of doctors who take part in strike to be made public from now onward for consideration of Medical Council of India for licence cancellation or suspension.

* Make provisions for legal action against striking doctor.

Strangely, no professional association or even IMA has protested against this judgment. The court has snatched the right to protest which was present even during the British era or the court thinks that doctors are not citizens of this country. I appeal to the higher ups in IMA through Dr. Rajinder Sharma our state President elect to take up the matter before 30 days period of appeal ends.

Preventing implementing second opinion is negligence:

 A District Redressal Forum in Thane in Maharashtra has ruled that preventing or advising a patient not to agree to a second opinion is negligence per se.  In a judgment given, the doctor has been ordered to pay Rs. Four  lakh to a patient in which the patient was left disabled for life. The patient had undergone surgery of Right lower limb following an accident. The patient kept on having pain in the limb but was constantly put on analgesics by the doctor. The patient took opinions from experts who advised him to get the screws removed and re implant done but the said doctor insisted and impressed upon the patient to ignore the expert opinion but  to continue with the analgesics which resulted in permanent disability. The order stated that undertaking a faulty operation and not allowing it to be rectified by another operation as suggested by other doctors, alongside only prescribing medication amounted to deficiency in rendering services.

Compiled by :

Dr. Ashwani K Juneja

Vice President cum Member News & Views Committee

IMA Hoshiarpur