Action against doctors who accept gifts

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MCI quantifies punishments for doctors accepting gifts

Aarti Dhar THE HINDU, 14th December 2010

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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