{"id":190565,"date":"2022-06-15T21:00:40","date_gmt":"2022-06-15T15:30:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=190565"},"modified":"2022-06-15T21:00:40","modified_gmt":"2022-06-15T15:30:40","slug":"dictates-for-doctors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/dictates-for-doctors\/","title":{"rendered":"Dictates for doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>News<\/strong>: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has published a draft of the regulations it proposes for the professional conduct of doctors and invited comments by June 22.<\/p>\n<p>The draft regulations have overlapping with the existing regulations of the erstwhile Medical Council of India.<\/p>\n<h5>What are the constituents of the draft regulations?<\/h5>\n<p>Chapters 2 to 6 deal with the <strong>a)<\/strong> professional conduct of doctors, <strong>b)<\/strong> the duties of registered medical practitioners towards their patients, <strong>c)<\/strong> the responsibilities of doctors to each other, <strong>d)<\/strong> the responsibilities of doctors to the public and allied health professionals, and professional misconduct, respectively.<\/p>\n<p>The guidelines are a mix of <strong>templates for certificates <\/strong>and<strong> extensive instructions<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>It is interesting that guideline 3, the NMC code of medical ethics, has <strong>dropped the controversial Charak Shapath<\/strong> and returned to the <strong>Declaration of Geneva<\/strong>. This is a wise move. India is a founder member of the World Medical Association and contributed to the drafting of the declaration.<\/p>\n<h5>What are some associated issues?<\/h5>\n<p><strong>Patient records<\/strong>: Every registered medical practitioner will have to <strong>maintain patient records for three years<\/strong> from the last consultation.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> This will be <strong>difficult to implement for most general practitioners<\/strong> who provide high-quality services at low prices and depend on high volumes of patients to earn a decent income.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> It will <strong>reduce the number of patients who can be attended to<\/strong>, add considerably to <strong>costs<\/strong>, and <strong>delay treatment<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>This measure is unwise and should be withdrawn.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Informed consent<\/strong>: In the section on informed consent, the statement that \u201cin an operation that may result in sterility, the consent of both husband and wife is required\u201d is poorly thought out and must be redrafted.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> It is possible that the person requiring such surgery may be single. Even if the individual is married, this regulation is <strong>contrary to the principle of individual autonomy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>The guidelines on <strong>continuous professional development<\/strong> resemble a decree. All practitioners of medicine need to keep abreast of evolving knowledge in medicine to provide competent care to patients. Such continuing education cannot be a repetition of college education. The rules suggested demonstrate a <strong>schoolteacher\u2019s approach<\/strong> with excessive regulation and control.<\/p>\n<p><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> Medical practitioners are mature learners and do not need the stick to be forced to learn.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>blanket prohibition on medical practitioners<\/strong> participating in educational activities sponsored directly or indirectly by pharmaceutical companies and the allied health sector will severely restrict access to the latest developments.<\/p>\n<p>In the guidelines on social media, the prohibition of sending scan images on social media will considerably <strong>impair communication<\/strong> and needs rethinking.<\/p>\n<p>The <strong>guidelines on telemedicine read more like a briefing paper<\/strong> than a guideline. It is one of the most elaborate sections and there is some repetition, but it provides a good framework.<\/p>\n<h5>Way forward<\/h5>\n<p>There is a lack of harmony in the draft. The first part, the regulations, read like typical bureaucratese.<\/p>\n<p>In summary, the <strong>draft needs extensive reworking<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article <strong>\u201cDictates for doctors<\/strong>\u201d published in <strong>The Hindu<\/strong> on <strong>15th June 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: The National Medical Commission (NMC) has published a draft of the regulations it proposes for the professional conduct of doctors and invited comments by June 22. The draft regulations have overlapping with the existing regulations of the erstwhile Medical Council of India. What are the constituents of the draft regulations? Chapters 2 to 6&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/dictates-for-doctors\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Dictates for doctors<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-190565","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704786838},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190565\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}