The Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) has cancelled the recognition of the postgraduate degrees of 48 doctors who had taken the course ‘Accident and Emergency Medicine’ in Sri Ramachandra University (SRU) and Vinayaka Mission Medical College. “We conducted inquiry with all the candidates, some appeared [for the inquiry] but others did not. Based on the records, we have cancelled the recognition of the PG degrees of all the 48 doctors. We have warned them that they should not use the degree,” said Dr. K. Senthil, president, TNMC.
The SRU had, in a print advertisement (when it launched the course the institution was known as Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre), mentioned that the course on Accident and Emergency Medicine was not recognised. However, Vinayaka Mission had remained silent and also did not respond to the council’s subsequent queries.
“We sent reminders twice. The two institutions had been running the course since 2002 till 2010, without recognition,” Dr. Senthil said.
Batches of students who had completed the course in 2005-06 had been denied registration by the council. But some students, with a mischievous intent and perhaps with the connivance of some people in the council, had registered their PG degrees in 2017, he said.
SRU’s Vice-Chancellor P.V. Vijayaraghavan said, “This [Accident and Emergency Medicine] course does not come under MCI’s purview. We had mentioned in the papers that it is not a recognised course. The council is not blaming the institution and has not asked any clarification from us. We have not asked the council to register anybody. We got approval for Emergency Medicine in 2012 and we admit two students. Since then it is a recognised course.”
Penalty instituted
The names of the doctors whose recognition has been withdrawn will be uploaded on the council’s website after legal scrutiny and approval. The council had already taken steps to penalise doctors for displaying unrecognised degrees at their clinics. “We have decided to impose a penalty of ₹10,000 on three doctors who have displayed unrecognised degrees. Their names will also be uploaded on the council’s website,” Dr. Senthil said.
