Consumer Protection Bill: Coimbatore doctors report to work sporting black badges

COIMBATORE: City doctors, who are members of the Indian Medical Association, reported to work sporting black badges protesting the Consumer Protection Bill 2018 and the National Medical Commission.


They said the Consumer Protection Bill would put doctors on the defensive which would finally affect the patients adversely and the national medical commission would not have representation from all medical stakeholders.

The doctors said the Consumer Protection Bill has no provision for a judicial member. “It also says no expert medical opinion is required,” said president of the Indian Medical Association, Coimbatore chapter, Dr Vinod Rajkumar. “This means cases will be dealt with without a legal or medical expert,” he said. “The so-called consumer mediation cells will just lead to more corruption and blackmail of doctors,” said national vice-chairman of the Hospitals Board of India Dr Ravikhumar.

The increase in jurisdiction of District Consumer Redressal Forum from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore would start scaring doctors, they said.

“Now every patient will demand compensation of close to Rs 1 crore. Doctors, in a bid to protect themselves, will simply refer emergency or complicated cases to bigger centres and hospitals, which will increase travel time and reduce chances of patient’s lives being saved,” said Dr Ravhikumar.

“Doctors will also start prescribing every investigation to avoid missing even a small diagnosis. While corporate hospitals do that, hospitals in the periphery decide tests based on a patient’s affordability,” he added. “At the end, patients get affected,” he added.

Doctors also had issues with the National Medical Commission, launched in December 2017, which came replacing the Indian Medical Council Act.

“The Indian Medical Council was an elected body with state representation from the Indian Medical Association. So even Tamil Nadu’s IMA had a representative. However, the National Medical Commission will comprise members only nominated by the central government,” said Dr Rajkumar.

“According to the Indian Medical Council Act, the medical council of India would inspect an upcoming medical college and would award a licence after inspecting it. Only after the licence is got, the college can start admission,” he said. “However, the national medical commission says people can start a medical college and apply for licence at the end of the first batch completing five years and any deficiencies can be rectified,” he added. “This is an attempt to attract investors into medical education,” he said.

Doctors said the commission would not provide for representation from the smaller hospitals. “Out of 4,500 hospitals in Tamil Nadu, hardly 400 are corporate hospitals. The remaining are small hospitals, nursing homes and clinics. We are a critical stakeholder that needs to be consulted before passing more such bills and acts. That representation will not be there in this commission,” said Dr Ravhikumar.