more-in Seeking a direction to curb fake medical practices, a public interest litigation petition was filed before the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court on Thursday seeking a direction to digitally update registration certificates of doctors along with their photos, residential address and place of practice. The petitioner, P. Ponnupandi of Madurai, said that cases of medical negligence were on the rise and arrests of quacks largely reported. He claimed that if one were to approach a doctor in a nearby clinic, he was not sure if the doctor was qualified and certified by the Medical Council. He said that the State Medical Council, since 1987, was issuing registration certificates with photos. But prior to that certificates had no photos. A digitally updated registration certificate could be issued to doctors enrolled with the Medical Council of India and the State Medical Council to weed out fake doctors, he said. The Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and the Code of Medical Ethics Regulation, 2002, which speaks about professional conduct and ethics, call for doctors and medical practitioners to attend medical education programmes organised by reputed professional academic bodies. However, an RTI application revealed that in the last five years only 20,000 doctors had participated in the medical education programmes, he said. The petitioner sought a direction for digital update of registration certificates and to make it mandatory for doctors to attend important medical educational programmes. He also sought appropriate action against those violating professional conduct and ethics. A division bench of Justices M. Duraiswamy and Anita Sumanth directed notice to the State Health and Family Welfare department and adjourned the case for further hearing.

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