Now, students also must register with Tamil Nadu Medical Council

CHENNAI: In an attempt to check those trying to register themselves as doctors with fake MBBS certificates ‘secured’ from universities, the Tamil Nadu Medical Council has now made it mandatory for all medical students to register with the council. Student registration numbers will be converted into doctors’ licence after completion of the degree.

The council resolved to introduce the rule after it found that many were applying for doctors’ licences armed with fake medical degrees and certificates.

Now, after completion of the course, medicos will be eligible to apply for a licence and practise only after they submit the student registration number to the medical council using their degree certificates. They will not be able to register themselves directly as doctors.

Each year, 8,580 students join the MBBS course from the 49 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu and nine colleges in Puducherry.

“At least three times in the last two years, we have caught people submitting fake registration certificates in undergraduate courses. Sometimes students with post graduate degrees from colleges and courses not recogonised by the Medical Council of India also submit applications. We have been seeing so many scams including impersonation in NEET 2019. We wanted to be careful,” said Tamil Nadu State Medical Council president Dr K Senthil. Earlier, the council had even registered doctors with unrecognised postgraduate degrees such as emergency medicine, he said.

“They were cancelled after we were alerted by MCI,” he said.

Now, names of students along with documents including NEET scores, Class XII mark sheets and thumb imprints should be sent to the council by the respective deans of medical colleges as soon as they join the course. The names, batch details along with the college name will be listed on the webpage and moved into the medical register after they get their medical degrees.

The medical council plans to hold a meeting with the directorate of medical education and deans soon, said a senior official.

The council will upgrade its webpage to make it more user friendly. In the new site, which is likely to be launched in December, it will also give the names of doctors who have been suspended or removed from the medical rolls.

Now, users will have to type the doctor’s names or their registration number to check on their status. “Some don’t even have photographs. In the updated version, doctors will be allowed to give their contact details and practice address,” said a senior official, who is working on the new website.

Doctors can log into the council webpage to apply/renew licence, upgrade educational status or intimate change of address online. While renewal once in five years is mandatory to continue practising, as a pre-requisite, doctors should have completed at least 30 hours of continuing medical education in the five years, said the senior official.