Mumbai: The Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has, acting on complaints, removed the names of six doctors from its registry for six months to five years for "misusing their degrees or cheating patients".
This comes in the wake of a medical officer who lost his registration for five years recently for filing an erroneous post-mortem report which pronounced the murder of a KEM medical graduate as 'natural death'.
A Borivli radiologist, who administered stem cell therapy to a mentally challenged boy with hearing loss, has been removed from the registry for five years after the patient's father complained to the council in 2011-12.
A Mulund surgeon, who removed a portion of the large intestine of a patient without waiting for a cancer biopsy report, lost his registration for two years.
Four pathologists from Greater Mumbai region and Karad have lost their registrations for six months to a year for signing on blank report papers on which technicians would later print out diagnostic tests.
"Hearings for these cases have been in progress for four years. We have acted in cases where doctors have misused their degrees or cheated patients,'' said MMC president Dr Kishor Taori.
He said Dr Sunil Waghmare, a Borivli doctor with a diploma in radiology, administered stem cell injections costing Rs 3 lakh to Gopal D's son, who is mentally challenged. "The treatment did not work and the patient's father complained to us. Our ethics committee found him guilty on several counts, including false propaganda and displaying a wrong degree in the public domain,'' said Dr Taori.
But Dr Waghmare told TOI that the complainant has agreed to withdraw his complaint. "We are filing an affidavit with the MMC on Tuesday,'' he said. He said he had filed a query under the RTI to the MMC to find out the qualifications needed to administer stem cell therapy. "Their reply said MMC has not recognise any course exclusively for stem cell therapy, so how can it say a particular doctor is not qualified to offer stem cell therapy. Moreover, the child was given stem cell for his hearing loss and while it did not work, he has not been harmed,'' he added.
Dr Taori said Mulund surgeon Dr Nitin Rahaney's name would be removed from the register for two years. But Dr Rahaney's lawyer Swapna Kote told TOI that they have not received any official intimation from the MMC. "We had moved the Bombay high court earlier and it had directed the MMC to hear our side. We argued the matter on Saturday, but we were not allowed to present our witnesses,'' said Kote.
The complaint against the four pathologists was filed by Maharashtra Association of Practicing Pathologists and Microbiologists president Dr Sandeep Yadav in 2012. "After an HC judgement in 2007 prevented lab technicians from running diagnostics laboratories without an MD pathologist, many labs unscrupulously started tying up with doctors. We found doctors had signed up with labs over 50 km away and at multiple places. An MD pathologist is supposed to prepare a medical report and certify it, but in many cases, these doctors would sign on blank papers that could be used by the labs as and when needed,'' said Dr Yadav.
Dr Taori said it was a good sign that a medical association had acted against offenders. "One of these doctors is a blood transfusion officer at Sion Hospital,'' he added.
Meanwhile, 16 medical students have submitted fake post-graduate diploma certificates to the MMC over the past few months. The body is filing an FIR in the matter.
Source : http://goo.gl/a6SBSb
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