Medical fraternity in Pune divided over keeping records of HIV+ patients

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Medical fraternity in Pune divided over keeping records of HIV+ patients

Published: Thursday, Dec 9, 2010, 10:28 IST

By Nozia Sayyed | Place: Pune | Agency: DNA

A section of the city's medical fraternity is upset with the Medical Council of

India (MCI) for issuing fresh guidelines on the maintenance of detailed records

of HIV-positive patients and their line of treatment.

Private doctors have questioned the rationale of the MCI in issuing such a

directive to them since they refer all HIV cases to government hospitals for

treatment.

Former president of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Pune, Dr Avinash

Bhondwe said, " We hardly get any HIV-positive patients and private practitioners

are not known to treat these patients. Then why were these set of guidelines for

maintaining details been issued? "

President of IMA, Pune, Dr Sharad Agarkhedkar, told DNA, " Even if an

HIV-positive patient turns up at a clinic or a hospital, he is immediately

referred to the anti-retroviral therapy centre set up by the government. We do

not treat HIV-positive patients. "

However, he added that the new guidelines issued by the MCI were welcome as they

would help in creating national data on HIV/AIDS.

Administrator of the state unit of MCI, Dr DN Lanjewar said the guidelines were

issued by the National Aids Control Society (NACO) on the instructions of the

Supreme Court. " The MCI's role is restricted to circulating the guidelines among

doctors and carrying out surprise checks to ensure whether they are adhering to

the rules or not, " he said.

A few months ago, the Supreme Court had heard a case on improper treatment of an

HIV patient following which the apex court had issued a directive to NACO.

" However, this will help us know the exact number of patients on first and

second lines of therapy. The guidelines demand that detailed records and data of

the patient and therapy must be maintained. Information on the medicine and

combination therapies too should be mentioned in the record. This will help in

avoidance of drug resistance cases, " said Dr Lanjewar.

In case of failure to maintain the data of the patients at a clinic, the MCI

would take stringent action against the concerned doctor, added Dr Lanjewar.

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