No med council in place, erring docs have free run
TNN | Updated: Aug 17, 2017, 12:24 AM IST
Chennai: Doctors found guilty of botching up a hair transplant in a salon that left a medical student dead and another doctor who pulled the plug off her ailing father in the intensive care unit should have been suspended from practice. But the regulatory authority, the Tamil Nadu Medical Council, is unable to act on them because of the lack of an elected 10-member council.
In June, after the council's tenure came to an end with members dragging each other to court over allegations of mismanagement and abuse of powers, the Madras high court appointed a retired judge, justice K Venkataraman, as administrator to the council. One of the prime duties of the court-appointed administrator is to conduct elections within three months. "At least three doctors have been found guilty of negligence by a disciplinary committee. We have received at least 20 more complaints against doctors, but we will not be able to initiate any action because there is no elected counsel," said Venkatraman.
Although the judge has sought information from doctors in at least five cases, no action, including disciplinary inquiry, can be initiated against them. According to the rule book, the council has set up a three-member disciplinary committee to conduct the inquiry. While seven members are yet to be elected to the council, the position of one of the three government nominees is vacant. "Even if government nominates another doctor, the disciplinary can only recommend action. An elected council is the only powerful authority," Venkataraman said.
He has been carrying out day-to day administration, elections cannot be held before December as the electoral rolls in the council are not updated, the retired judeg said. The council has registered about 1.25 lakh doctors but the list hasn't been updated for long. On July 26, the council put out advertisements calling members to furnish change of address for revision of electoral rolls on or before August 28. "The response hasn't been good so far. So, we have emailed some doctors and asked doctors' associations to help us," Venkatraman said.
Once the electoral rolls are updated, the council will have to call for nominations and scrutinise applications. "We won't be able to complete the elections until December," he added.
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