TN doctor elected IMA president

Chennai: Dr J A Jayalal, a government medical practitioner from Kanyakumari district of Tamil Nadu, was on Friday elected national president of the Indian Medical Association, a professional body of doctors that has nearly four lakh doctors as members.

Dr Jayalal, who is a professor of surgery in Tirunelveli Medical College, will take over from the incumbent president Dr Rajan Sharma on December 27, a release said.

Expressing the challenges ahead for doctors amidst the new education policy and the National Medical Commission, Jayalal said the IMA would strive hard to restore the purity and sanctity of modern medicine without mixing it with other traditional streams. The IMA would convince the Centre to come out with the Central Healthcare Professionals Protection Act to prevent violence against doctors, he said.

“We have lost 610 doctors to Covid-19 across the country and 67 doctors in the state. It is our legitimate demand to the government to recognise them as martyrs of Covid-19 ,” he said