PHM-Exch> Action against doctors who accept gifts India

[Claudio Schuftan]

From: Gopal Dabade drdabade at gmail.com

http://beta.thehindu.com/news/national/article244361.ece
THE HINDU, 14th December 2010 MCI quantifies punishments for doctors
accepting gifts

Aarti Dhar

The Medical Council of India (MCI) has suggested some modifications to the
regulations notified in December last that put a blanket ban on doctors for
accepting gifts, travel facilities and hospitality from pharmaceutical
companies in lieu of promoting their products.

While quantifying punishment for medical practitioners violating the
provisions of the December 2009 Indian Medical Council (Professional
Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, the MCI has suggested
various degrees of punishments for doctors who accept gifts worth Rs.1,000
from any pharmaceutical or allied healthcare company instead of a total ban
including one on research projects.

The punishments range from censure (for accepting gifts valued between
Rs.1,000 and Rs.5,000) to removal from the Indian or State Medical Registry
for more than one year (for accepting gifts worth more than Rs.1,00,000).

The recommendations, sent to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry
for notification, also address other grey areas, including sponsorship of
travel and lodging of medical practitioners participating in a conference,
monetary grants and the question of clinical research funding.

According to the recommendations, a medical practitioner will not accept any
travel facility within the country or outside, any kind of hospitality or
cash or monetary gifts for self or family members for a vacation or even for
attending conferences, seminars or continuing medical education programmes
as a delegate. Punishment for violation of these clauses can range from
censure to removal from Indian or State Medical Register for more than a
year.

However, in the case of medical research projects funded by pharmaceutical
and allied healthcare companies, the medical practitioner will have to take
due permission from the competent authorities and ensure that such a
research project has the clearance of national/State or institutional ethics
committees and see to it that all prescribed legal requirements are
fulfilled.

The source and amount of the funding has to be publicly disclosed at the
beginning itself, proper facilities have to be provided to human volunteers
if necessary for the project, and undue animal experimentations are not to
be carried out. Importantly, the researcher will have the freedom to publish
the results of the research in the greater interest of society and there
shall be no compromise either with his or with the autonomy of the medical
institution while conducting research.

Any kind of violation for the first time will invite censure but repeating
the offence could invite the removal of the practitioner's name from the
Medical Register. The period of removal would depend on the clause violated.


A medical practitioner is also not allowed to endorse any drug or product
publicly and any study conducted on the efficacy or otherwise of these
products will have to be presented to appropriate scientific bodies or
published in an appropriate scientific journal.

“With these recommendations, we are looking at strict implementation of the
regulations,” MCI president Ketan Desai said. There was some ambiguity on a
few clauses in the regulations notified in December. “By clearly defining
these we have resolved any confusion,” he said.
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