The Indian Medical Association's Coimbatore Branch has vowed to steer the medical fraternity clear off any controversy in the wake of the scam involving the former president of the Medical Council of India Ketan Desai.
In a pledge circulated among members, the IMA branch president, N.V. Girish Kumar, has said: “We, the members of Indian Medical Association, Coimbatore Branch, are deeply hurt to see the expanding extent of damage caused to medical education by some of our colleagues, whose misdeeds are slowly coming to the public domain, and to our notice too.
There must be obviously many more doctors and other personnel involved in this massive fraud on the Indian public. We request the Government to bring all the misdeeds to light and all the perpetrators to [should] be punished very severely.”
Dr. Kumar said: “We are now asking for a new council to be formed afresh with the right number of elected members in it, to form the right balance as enshrined in the original MCI Act.
While there were suggestions and indications of wrong-doing occurring at the MCI for a long time, we did not step in to do something, on the mistaken assumption that it was not as bad as it is now turning out to be.”
The absolute autonomy given to the MCI was meant to insulate the medical profession from political and other interference. It had also placed a huge responsibility on the medical fraternity to closely monitor the allopathic system of medicine so that it could ensure good health in society.
The responsibility towards the public had not been compromised despite what had happened in the MCI, Dr. Kumar said. He called upon the medical fraternity to take up again the task of “policing ourselves” much better.
“We implore the public to continue to keep their faith in the medical care given by us,” he said.
