‘Hoping for a thalassaemia and sickle cell-free Maha soon’

Dr Vinky Rughwani, a crusader of thalassaemia patients in the city and region, has been nominated as the chairman of ethical committee and executive body member of the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC). He is also a member of the Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council and State Blood Transfusion Council.

After taking over these charges, Dr Rughwani is all set to make the much-required difference to working of these bodies as well as striving for thalassaemia and sickle cell patients. He plans make these organizations more doctor friendly so that they can build a better relationship with their patients.

TOI spoke to Dr Rughwani about his plans in an interview. Excerpts...

Q. You have always been a medical activist working for thalassaemia patients and achieved many benefits for them. Now that you are on MMC body, what first action do you propose for the benefit of thalassaemia patients?

A. It may sound too ambitious, but I foresee a thalassaemia and sickle cell disease (SCD) free Maharashtra few years down the line. I have discussed it with the minister. Each district with high incidence of these two diseases will have new welfare schemes like free iron chelators for thalassaemia and hydroxy-urea and folic acid for SCD patients. I will try to ensure that these patients get packed red blood cells (RBCs) and not whole blood which is harmful. I also plan to get HPLC machines for testing the trait or the disease in each district. These are preventable diseases and hence efforts are needed in this direction by educating people about it.

Q. City is getting a Sickle Cell Research Centre. Will you take up the movement created by the late Sampat Ramteke, your counterpart in SCD?

A. Yes, very much. We need to support the Sickle Cell Society of India in fulfilling Ramteke’s dreams. This centre will change the face of services available in the region about the two diseases. I plan to bring both knee and hip replacement for SCD patients. These surgeries at present are neither included in the CM Relief Fund nor in the Mahatma Phule Arogya Yojna. In fact, another procedure called splenectomy also needs to be included in these schemes.

Q. What about your priorities in MMC?

A. I may individually not dictate the priorities. But through MMC our first effort is to resolve all the 680 or pending cases of complaints against doctors by patients. There are cases pending from different years beginning 2002-03. In the past, most of time the MMC body was not there and the council was just run by an administrator. Hence, the pendency. In such cases there are three kinds of action, warning, registration suspension temporarily from three months to any period and permanent suspension. Permanent suspension in done in few cases of gross negligence by the doctor.

Q. There are issues of renewal of the registration. What are these issues?

A. Doctors need to renew their registration every 5 years. For this they need to upgrade their knowledge in their specialities. For this they need to earn at least 30 MMC credit points in five years which means at least six points every year. So, they need to attend continuing medical education programmes and conferences. Also, there is issue of renewal of registration with persons improving on their qualifications. If a MBBS doctor does MD or MS he/she needs to renew his registration. For this a doctor needs to visit MMC and verify his certificates personally. But now we are modifying this practice. The doctor can get the certificates verified from an MMC member nearest to him and send it on mail or post. This will help doctors avoid the travel.

Q. You have also been nominated on the Maharashtra State Pharmacy Council (MSPC) as a representative of MMC. What is your role there?

A. Only one member from MMC is nominated on the MSPC. One of the priority issue that needs to be dealt at the earliest is the issue of implementation of the recently announced regulation of prescribing generic drugs by doctors. There has been a state GR. Medical Council of India (MCI has also issues same instructions. But negligible number of doctors are practising or implementing it. For this practice to be followed by practitioners there is a need of very good collaboration between MMC and the MSPC. Not only do they need to prescribe generic drugs but also write them in capital letters. We need to find new ways of ensuring that this is implemented by everyone.