KMC e News Letter

Vol : 2 No. 2 March 2020 Editorial E-learning in medical education 3 Office Bearers The Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine 2019 4 HARYANA MEDICAL COUNCIL, Chandigarh 5 President: Assam Medical Council, Guwahati 5

Dr H. Veerabhadrappa S Orissa Council of Medical Registration, Bhubaneshwar, 5 Vice President: Dr Kanchi Pralhad V U.P. Medical Council, Lucknow 5 Registrar: Tamil Nadu medical body calls for fewer new graduates, more experts 5 Dr BPS Murthy T Uttarakhand Medical Council, Dehradun 6 Members: Kerala medical council takes cognizance of misleading Dr. Basavaraju advertisements on allergy tests by diagnostic firm 6 Dr Ravindra HN Rules set to keep track of doctors, make hospitals

Dr Gududur Ajaykumar N accountable for negligence 6 Dr Uma BR Chhattisgarh Doctor, 2 Policemen Get Life-term Jail till Dr. Nagaraj Annegowda Natural Death For Raping Woman 7 Dr Veerabhadraiah TA Medicine Practice In UK Becomes Easy 7 Dr Prabhakara GN E Medical Negligence] Allahabad HC Grants 25 Lac Dr. K. Ramadev Compensation To Kin Of Young Lawyer Who Died Of Dengue; Issues General Directions 8 Dr LH Bidari Now, students also must register with Tamil Nadu Dr Jalaludin Akbar

T Medical Council 9 Dr Ravi N Calcutta high court scraps council order to suspend Dr Mohan doctor Subhash Chandra Tiwari's registration 9 Dr. S Beedimani No plan to allow lateral entry to MBBS: Minister 10 Jharkhand short of 22,500 Doctors as per MCI study 10 N Editorial Board Pvt Medical College Admitting MBBS Students Out of Dr P S Shankar, Editor-in-Chief, Merit Slapped Fine Of Rs 2.5 Crores By Gujrat Members: High Court 10 Dr M K Sudarshan BILL GATES CONFERS ICMR AWARD TO DR. CYRUS POONAWALLA 11

Dr Ranjan Kunar Pejaver O One in 4 young people 'addicted' to smartphones: Dr C R Chandrashekhar Study 11 Dr Ravi N Parliament passes bill to ban e-cigarettes 12 Dr. K. Ramadev SC: Critically ill must not be neglected during strike 12 C CBI searches HC Judge's premises 12

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Oxygen shapes physiology and pathology Thanks to the groundbreaking work of these Nobel Laureates, we know much more about how different oxygen levels regulate fundamental physiological processes. Oxygen sensing allows cells to adapt their metabolism to low oxygen levels: for example, in our muscles during intense exercise. Other examples of adaptive processes controlled by oxygen sensing include the generation of new blood vessels and the production of red blood cells. Our immune system and many other physiological functions are also fine-tuned

by the O2-sensing machinery. Oxygen sensing has even The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has awarded the 2019 Nobel been shown to be essential during fetal development for controlling normal blood vessel formation and placenta Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to William G. Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter J. development. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their discoveries of how cells Oxygen sensing is central to a large number of diseases sense and adapt to oxygen availability (Figure 2). For example, patients with chronic renal failure often suffer from severe anemia due to William G. Kaelin, Jr. was born in 1957 in New York. He obtained an decreased EPO expression. EPO is produced by cells in M.D. from Duke University, Durham. He did his specialist training in the kidney and is essential for controlling the formation internal medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, of red blood cells, as explained above. Moreover, the and at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston. He established his own oxygen-regulated machinery has an important role in research lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and became a full cancer. In tumors, the oxygen-regulated machinery is professor at Harvard Medical School in 2002. He is an Investigator of the utilized to stimulate blood vessel formation and reshape Howard Hughes Medical Institute since 1998. metabolism for effective proliferation of cancer cells. Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe was born in 1954 in Lancashire, United Kingdom. Intense ongoing efforts in academic laboratories and He studied medicine at Gonville and Caius College at Cambridge University pharmaceutical companies are now focused on and did his specialist training in nephrology at Oxford. He established an developing drugs that can interfere with different independent research group at Oxford University and became a full disease states by either activating, or blocking, the professor in 1996. He is the Director of Clinical Research at Francis Crick oxygen-sensing machinery. Institute, London, Director for Target Discovery Institute in Oxford and The awarded mechanism for oxygen sensing has Member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research. fundamental importance in physiology, for example for Gregg L. Semenza was born in 1956 in New York. He obtained his B.A. in our metabolism, immune response and ability to adapt Biology from Harvard University, Boston. He received an MD/PhD degree to exercise. Many pathological processes are also from the University of Pennsylvania, School of Medicine, Philadelphia in affected. Intensive efforts are ongoing to develop new 1984 and trained as a specialist in pediatrics at Duke University, Durham. drugs that can either inhibit or activate the oxygen- He did postdoctoral training at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore where regulated machinery for treatment of anemia, cancer he also established an independent research group. He became a full and other diseases. professor at the Johns Hopkins University in 1999 and since 2003 is the This year's Nobel Laureates revealed the mechanism for Director of the Vascular Research Program at the Johns Hopkins Institute one of life's most essential adaptive processes. They for Cell Engineering. established the basis for our understanding of how Oxygen sHIFts the balance oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and Many pieces had fallen into place, but what was still lacking was an physiological function. Their discoveries have also paved the way for promising new strategies to fight understanding of how O2 levels regulate the interaction between VHL and HIF-1a. The search focused on a specific portion of the HIF-1a protein anemia, cancer and many other diseases. known to be important for VHL-dependent degradation, and both Kaelin Source: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and Ratcliffe suspected that the key to O2-sensing resided somewhere in 2019. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Tue. 8 Oct this protein domain. In 2001, in two simultaneously published articles they 2019. showed that under normal oxygen levels, hydroxyl groups are added at two specific positions in HIF-1a (Fig 1). This protein modification, called prolyl hydroxylation, allows VHL to recognize and bind to HIF-1a and thus explained how normal oxygen levels control rapid HIF-1a degradation with the help of oxygen-sensitive enzymes (so-called prolyl hydroxylases). Further research by Ratcliffe and others identified the responsible prolyl hydroxylases. It was also shown that the gene activating function of HIF- 1a was regulated by oxygen-dependent hydroxylation. The Nobel Fig 1 Laureates had now elucidated the oxygen sensing mechanism and had shown how it works. When oxygen levels are low (hypoxia), HIF-1á is protected from degradation and accumulates in the nucleus, where it associates with ARNT and binds to specific DNA sequences (HRE) in hypoxia-regulated genes (1). At normal oxygen levels, HIF-1á is rapidly degraded by the proteasome (2). Oxygen regulates the degradation process by the addition of hydroxyl groups (OH) to HIF-1á (3). The VHL protein can then recognize and form a complex with HIF-1á leading to its degradation in an oxygen-dependent manner (4). Fig 2

Page 4 HARYANA MEDICAL COUNCIL, Chandigarh Tamil Nadu medical body calls for Address: SCO NO.32, SECTOR-20 D, DAKSHINI MARG, fewer new graduates, more experts NEAR LABOUR CHOWK Chandigarh (District CHENNAI: As the rest of India struggles to produce more Chandigarh) doctors to meet healthcare demands that grow with the HARYANA MEDICAL COUNCIL, Chandigarh population. The Tamil Nadu Medical Council has written to health secretary, Beela Rajesh that the state restrict proliferation of Chandigarh is a State Authority under the control of medical colleges-both Government and Private. The Council urged State Government.It is situated in Chandigarh.. the Government to instead incentivize working in rural areas to Fax # +91-172-2585505, Registrar 2706094. ensure judicious distribution of doctors. Chairman : President Dr.NeelKanth Sharma ,. While the WHO recommends a doctor-patient ratio of Registrar : Dr. K. K. Kapoor 1:1000, Tamil Nadu has 1 doctor for 709 people. The Council which revised its medical register said, there are nearly 1.4 lakh doctors registered in Tamil Nadu. After removing those who have ASSAM MEDICAL COUNCIL, GUWAHATI moved out or have stopped practice, the council estimates 1.15 lakh doctors to be practicing in the state. Address: Office of the Directorate of Ayush, Baista With the existing number of seats, the number of doctors in Road, H.No.,1, Tamil Nadu will double to 2.05 lakh by 2035 when population Banphol Nagar Path, Dispur -6 Guwahati, Assam growth is slowing down. “The estimated population will be in 2035 Assam Medical Council, Guwahati (Gauhati) Assam is will be just 13 crores (up) from present 8.15 crores”, the council a State Authority under the control of State said. Increasing seats may lead to unhealthy competition, Government. It is situated in Guwahati. malpractice, and abuse, state medical council vice president, Dr Dr.Lakshmanan S., IAS (President). Surendran said on Monday. Chairman: Dr. Umesh Ch.Sarma +91-361-2380812. “ Many young MBBS graduates work in night shifts in private hospitals for a monthly salary of Rs 20,000, which is much lesser Registrar : Dr.JoyKantaSahariah +91-94350-88039 than that of some blue-collar workers. General Physicians get fewer patients in clinics because people prefer specialists” he said. The State which has got permission from the Medical ORISSA COUNCIL OF MEDICAL Council of India (MCI) to start six new medical colleges, however has a policy to establish at least one medical college in every REGISTRATION, Bhubaneshwar, Odish district and increase the total number of seats in all medical ADDRESS; HEALTH EDUCATION OF BUREU BLOCK, colleges in the state by at least 150. “With NEET there is no Bhubaneshwar 751 005Odisha guarantee that students allotted to medical colleges in the state ORISSA COUNCIL OF MEDICAL REGISTRATION, are from Tamil Nadu. Unless we open more colleges we won't be able to meet the growing demand”, said health secretary Beela Bhubaneshwar a State Authority under the control of Rajesh. Norway and Sweden have more than four doctors for State Government. It is situated in Bhubaneshwar. every 1000 people, she pointed out. President Dr. P.K. Senapati +91-6752-2560277. Favouring more hospitals, director of public health Dr K Registrar : Dr.Arun Kumar Tripathi. Kolandsamy said after the courts struct down incentives for in- service candidates, the state has been finding it difficult to post doctors in urban public health centres where there is more work and no incentive. The state medical council has a difficult from 49 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu and nine Puducherry 8,580 students join the course every year, which is about 11.12% of the MBBS seats in the country. Nearly 750 foreign medical graduates register in the U.P. Medical Council is established under section 4 of state every year. With the increase in postgraduate seats in the last couple of years, the state has more than 3600 seats which is the U.P. Medical Act III of 1917. U.P. Medical Council 17% of the medical seats in the country. registered qualification recognized by Medical Council of “We need more specialists as many of them remain in the India. This council is authorized to do the Registration cities. But we don't need more undergraduates passing out of M.B.B.S. (Provisional/Permanent), M.D./M.S as per annually” said Fr Surendran. At a special meeting on August 27, the council discussed the need for better distribution of doctors in the schedule of Medical Council of India. rural area. The council argued for mandatory posting in rural areas Address 5, Sarvpalli Mall Avenue Road, Lucknow with better incentives and suggested better working conditions, - 226001 (U.P.) India posting couples in the same district and incentive marks for doctors in rural area taking postgraduate entrance examinations/ Contact No- (0522) 2238846, 2235964, “What we mean to say is instead of starting a medical 2235965, 3302100 college starts PG Specialty course and service in districts and taluk Fax No- (0522) 2236600 hospitals”, Dr Surendran said. President: Dr. K. K. Gupta Director General, Medical Education & Training, U.P. Source: Pushpa Narayan, Times of India, November 12. 2019

Page 5 Rules set to keep track of doctors, make hospitals accountable for negligence Uttarakhand Medical Council is a Statutory Body, established by the law of the State i.e. Uttarakhand Medical Council Act 2002. The formation of the Council is on democratic NEW DELHI: The government would now maintain a basis with elected members, few nominated and two ex-officio complete record of all medical professionals — Indian and members, foreign origin — practicing in hospitals or holding teaching and research assignments in medical colleges in India. The power and duties are 1) tomaintain a live register and to provide for the registaration of medical practitioners, 2) to hear Setting in motion the process of changing the landscape of and decide appeals against any decision of the Registrar 3).To healthcare in India, the Centre has framed part rules under prescribe a Code of ethics for regulating the professional Conduct the newly-enacted National Medical Commission Act. So far, of practitioners.4)To reprimand a practitioner, or to suspend or two sets of rules have been framed — National Medical remove his name from the register, or to take such other Commission (Submission of List of Medical Professionals) disciplinary action against him as may, in the opinion of the Council Rules 2019 and National Medical Commission (Manner of be necessary or expedient, 5) To receive complaints from public Appointment and Nomination of Members, their Salary, (including patients and their relatives) against misconduct or Allowances and Terms of Conditions of Service, and negligence by a medical practitioner, to procced for inquest, take a Declaration of Assets, Professional and Commercial decision on the merits of the case and to initiate disciplinary action Engagements rules 2019 .. or award compensation and similarly to take action against frivolous complaints., 6)To provide protection to its members in Through the rules, the government has sought to set right discharging professional duties, and 7)To ensure that no the problems of now-defunct Medical Council of India in unqualified person practices the modern system of medicine. maintaining a national registry of all registered medical Contact: Dr. Y. S. Bist (Registrar)Medical Council professionals in India. Now, the newly formed commission Uttarakhand,Near I.T. Park, DhandaLakond,P.O. Gujrada. would need to maintain a database of all registered medical Dehradun 248001Landline no : 0135-260889Email: professionals in India and report it to the government bi- [email protected] annually. So far, MCI and state councils would maintain data separately and it would not be updated in years.

Kerala medical council takes With the rules, the government has sought to address the cognizance of misleading problem of malpractice at the medical college level. The advertisements on allergy tests by newly formed commission would be required to report data diagnostic firm on doctors employed by colleges at teaching and research positions.

Thiruvananthapuram: Taking serious cognizance of the According to health ministry sources, this has been done to medical ethics violation the Travancore and Cochin Medical ensure that private medical colleges do not get unnecessary Council (TCMC) is going to consider a case of 'misleading advertisement on allergy tests” that have been making rounds number of medical seats by inflating the number of teaching on the local state media. positions. “It is a common practice in some colleges to show a The advertisement published on the front page of large number of teaching faculty in MBBS courses so that newspapers by a diagnostic laboratory is alleged to have given they can seek more seats and grants from the government. an impression of some cure for allergies and asking people to With a streamlined database which differentiates between a get a wide range of allergy tests. It gave details on what medical professional in a hospital and one who is employed allergies were and how those tests could identify allergens. by a college in a teaching position, this fraudulent practice will However on questioning the efficacy as well as be checked,” said an official involved in the framing of rules. justification of those tests, the State Medical Council is now The ministry has also made it mandatory for every hospital to going to look into the matter. report a person in-charge (usually medical superintendent) Misleading advertisements have been a long standing who would be held responsible (apart from the practising issue in Kerala. Viewing this breach, the Kerala Medical Council had in May suspended the registration of an Ayurvedic doctor) in case of legal issues pertaining to a case. This would practitioner who was under the scanner for publishing go in the central database and would help the patient in advertisement which claimed miracle and unscientific cures for medical negligence cases. various illnesses.

Source: Medical Dialogues, October24, 2019

Page 6 Chhattisgarh Doctor, 2 Policemen Get Life-term Jail Till Natural Death For Raping Woman A court in Chhattisgarh's Durg district sentenced two policemen and a government doctor to imprisonment for rest of their life for the rape a 20-year-old woman in 2014. Fifth Additional District and Session Judge on Thursday convicted the doctor and the policemen awarding them life imprisonment, Additional Public Prosecutor told PTI on November 22. The convicts would not be released from jail till their “natural death”, he added.“The court observed that this was an instance of protector turning into a predator. In view of the offence committed by the accused, they deserve no leniency”, A, who appeared for the victim, said. The incident had occurred on June 19, 2014, at the government hospital in Supela in Durg district where the woman was admitted for treatment of some ailments, he said. He then posted in the hospital, and the two police constables who were on duty there, took the woman to the guardroom and raped her. They also filmed the act and started harassing the victim using the clip. After she was discharged from the hospital, the two constables again sexually exploited her by threatening to upload the video on social media platforms. When the two cops learnt the woman had become pregnant, they forcibly gave her a pill to abort the foetus in December 2014, he said. However, mustering courage, the victim in January 2015 lodged a police complaint following which the three accused were arrested. After a year of filing the complaint, the girl committed suicide in January 2016. The trio were convicted under sections 376 (2)(B) (being a public servant, takes advantage of his official position and commits rape on a woman in his custody), 376(D) (gang rape) and 506B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code.Assistance for overcoming suicidal thoughts is available on the State's health helpline 104. source: The Hindu

Medicine Practice In UK Becomes Easy

Indian healthcare professionals are in a way to get new horizons of medical practice in the UK, as British Council and healthcare professionals' authorities have simplified their regulations regarding the language tests necessary for obtaining practice license and immigration services in the UK. Since the level of English test for the registration of a healthcare professional is already high, now the aspirants need to appear for only one English proficiency test recommended by the relevant regulatory authority and the immigration department. Earlier, the non-native English language speaking healthcare professionals had to clear two exams, namely, International English Language Testing System (IELTS) and Occupational English Test (OET) in order to register with the UK healthcare boards such as General Medical Council and Nursing and Midwifery Council. In response to this, the British Council officials have mentioned that the simplified entrance norms and visa procedure will be helpful to access the medical staff as per their need within a short time. Further, they have added that this change is applicable to all tier 2 (general) visa applications submitted from 1st October 2019. Indian doctors, nurses, and allied healthcare professionals who aspire to immigrate to the UK for medicine practice can look forward to this opportunity.

Source: VishakhaPaygude, Docplexus

Page 7 Medical Negligence] Allahabad HC Grants 25 Lac Compensation To Kin Of Young Lawyer Who Died Of Dengue; Issues General Directions

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday granted compensation of Rs. 25,00,000 to the Petitioner-Advocate who lost his son to dengue, due to gross medical negligence on the part of SRN Medical College, one of the oldest medical colleges of the State. Treating the letter written by Petitioner-Advocate B.P. Mishra as a PIL, the division bench of Justices Pradeep Kumar Singh Baghel and Piyush Agrawal said,In view of gross medical negligence on the part of the doctors of S.R.N. Medical College and in peculiar facts and circumstances of the case that a practicing Advocate of this Court has lost his only young son, who was also an advocate, we assess the compensation of Rs. 25,00000/- (Twenty Five Lakhs) mentioned above, which shall be paid to the petitioner within six weeks from today. The above payment shall be made through the District Magistrate.” The Petitioner's deceased son Piyush Mishra, who was also a practicing Advocate, was admitted to the SRN Medical College in 2016 where he was wrongly diagnosed with viral fever and was prescribed 'broad spectrum antibiotics' in dengue fever. It was submitted that the deceased was instead suffering from Dengue and the hospital should not have prescribed him antibiotics. Concurring with the submissions, the court said, "In the present case the doctors of S.R.N. Medical College has made wrong diagnosis and they administered 'broad spectrum antibiotic' to the patient which is not prescribed in dengue fever as discussed above in the direction of State Government, which is on record, in which it is clearly mentioned that antibiotic should not be given to dengue patient.” On a broader issue of rising number of reported dengue cases in Allahabad, the court concluded that no effective measure had been taken by the State functionaries to combat its spread. No heed was paid to the mandate contained in the Uttar Pradesh Prevention and Control of Malaria, Dengue, Kala-azar and any Vector Borne Disease Regulations, 2016, which was enacted to curb the menace of dengue .Stating that "vector borne diseases are not contagious diseases but their outbreak shows that sufficient preventive measures have not been taken by the concerned authorities," the court directed: · All DMs of the State shall ensure that preventive measures mentioned in the 2016 Regulations and the 'Dengue and Chikangunia Prevention Plans -2016-17 are complied with strictly. · Sentinal Surveillance Hospital's Labs, established for test and investigation of dengue and chikungunya patients, should function efficiently under the supervision of Chief Medical Officer and overall supervision of DM · Blood separation units, established for supply of blood and platelets of dengue patients, should function strictly in terms of directions issued by State Government. The court also directed the State Government, in view of dearth of dialysis facility in the S.R.N. Medical College, to release sufficient fund to them as well as other Government Hospitals, to provide sufficient dialysis units. Source: LIVELAW NEWS NETWORK24 Nov 2019.

Page 8 Now, students also must register with Tamil Nadu Medical Council.

CHENNAI: In an attempt to check those trying to register themselves as doctors with fake MBBS certificates 'secured' from universities, the Tamil Nadu Medical Council has now made it mandatory for all medical students to register with the council. Student registration numbers will be converted into doctors' licence after completion of the degree. The council resolved to introduce the rule after it found that many were applying for 'doctors licences armed with fake medical degrees and certificates. Now, after completion of the course, medicos will be eligible to apply for a licence and practice only after they submit the student registration number to the medical council using their degree certificates. They will not be able to register themselves directly as doctors. Each year, 8,580 students join the MBBS course from the 49 medical colleges in Tamil Nadu and nine colleges in Puducherry. At least three times in the last two years, we have caught people submitting fake registration certificates in undergraduate courses. Sometimes students with post graduate degrees from colleges and courses not recogonised by the Medical Council of India also submit applications. We have been seeing so many scams including impersonation in NEET 2019. We wanted to be careful,” said Tamil Nadu State Medical Council president Dr K Senthil. Earlier, the council had even registered doctors with unrecognized postgraduate degrees such as emergency medicine, he said. “They were cancelled after we were alerted by MCI,” he said. Now, names of students along with documents including NEET scores, Class XII mark sheets and thumb imprints should be sent to the council by the respective deans of medical colleges as soon as they join the course. The names, batch details along with the college name will be listed on the webpage and moved into the medical register after they get their medical degrees. The medical council plans to hold a meeting with the directorate of medical education and deans soon, said a senior official. The council will upgrade its webpage to make it more user friendly. In the new site, which is likely to be launched in December, it will also give the names of doctors who have been suspended or removed from the medical rolls. Now, users will have to type the doctor's names or their registration number to check on their status. “Some don't even have photographs. In the updated version, doctors will be allowed to give their contact details and practice address,” said a senior official, who is working on the new website. Doctors can log into the council webpage to apply/renew licence, upgrade educational status or intimate change of address online. While renewal once in five years is mandatory to continue practicing, as a pre-requisite, doctors should have completed at least 30 hours of continuing medical education in the five years, said the senior official. Source: Economic Times, November 28, 2019 Calcutta high court scraps council order to suspend doctor Subhash Chandra Tiwari's registration KOLKATA: The Calcutta high court on Wednesday scrapped the state medical council's order to suspendgastroenterologistSubhash Chandra Tiwari's registrationearlier this month for the death of four-month-old Kuheli Chakraborty who had died at Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, where she was admitted for colonoscopy on April 15, 2017. Pointing out that the council could not “make scapegoats out of innocent medical practitioners merely to avoid public criticism”, the HC also ordered it to pay Rs 50,000 to the doctor for “unnecessary harassment, stigma and loss of goodwill “he suffered. The HC gave the council three weeks to publish in a gazette that it was revoking its earlier decision on immediate effect The council's lawyer, SaibalenduBhowmick, indicated.they might appeal against the decision but its register,Manas Chakraborty, remained non- committal, saying they would take a decision only after going through the order in detail .. Justice Sabyasachi Bhattacharya, in his 38-page judgment, said Tiwari was accused of medical negligence but his name was stuck . off as a medical practitioner because the council ruled that he did not have the requisite qualifications to practiceas a gastroenterologist in a hospital. The HC held if that was the reason, Tiwari shouldhave been given the opportunity to argue his side. Tiwari, who had been practicing for the past decade and a half, is a MD in tropical medicineand a has a diploma in TB and chest diseases. The HC pointed out that Tiwari did not hide his qualificationsfrom the hospital he worked for andif the authorities there thought he was fit towork as a gastroenterologist, it could not be held against him. The HC also stated that the council's own rules allowed for doctors' names to bestruck off the registrar for infamous conductin professional aspect, but the groundsof dismissal did not fall in that category.Justice Bhattacharya observed that whilelegal provisions in this regard are for the “benefitand in the interest”of people, itshould also be kept in mind that irrationally victimizingmedical practitionersregularly and meting out public harassment tothem by public or even the medicalcouncil will also not serve public interest. Source: Times of India, November 28, 2019 Page 9 No plan to allow lateral entry to Jharkhand short of 22,500 Doctors as MBBS: Minister per MCI study Chennai: No plan for lateral entry to the MBBS is As per the recent study conducted by MCI, looking at pending with the Union Ministry of Health and Family the current production rate of doctors in Jharkhand i.e. Welfare, Union Minister of State for Health Ashwini 300 doctors annually, the state will take a minimum of 87 Kumar Choubey has said in the Lok Sabha. years to meet the doctor-patient ratio of 1:1000 as set by He was responding to a question from Sajda Ahmed. the World Health Organization (WHO). Mr Choubey said admission to the MBBS at institutes Currently, the state has about 10,000 doctors with the governed by separate Acts of Parliament, including the population of 3.25 crore. The approximate shortfall of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, would be through doctors in the State is more than 22,500. Lack of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test from the planning and low budgetary allocations have led is the academic year 2020-21 . This would ensure a common major reason for such a poor state of healthcare in standard for medical education and obviate the need for Jharkhand as informed by one of the medical students to sit for multiple exams. professional. Any person with a foreign medical qualification must take the National Exit Test for obtaining a licence to With the approval of the Cabinet Committee of practice medicine, he said. Section 15 of the National Economic Affairs (CCEA), 75 new government medical Medical Commission (NMC) Act provides for a common colleges will be set up in under-served areas having no final year MBBS exam for registration to practice such institutes. These medical colleges will be associated with the district hospitals having a minimum of 200 beds. medicine and admission to postgraduate courses. With this there will be a total of 15,700 MBBS seats will be Source: The Hindu, Nov 30, 2019 added in the country

Pvt Medical College Admitting MBBS Students Out Of Merit Slapped Fine of Rs 2.5 Crores By Gujarat High Court Few pvt medical colleges admit MBBS students out of merit willfully by alterations in papers as each seat is sold for crores. Even college or university move court as these tricks are caught by MCI and then these college move to court to get favorable order to regularize these seats but such trick was caught by court and then court punished it badly. Gujarat High Court has imposed a fine of whopping Rs 2.5 crore to a medical university noting that the institution had violated the rules and regulations set by the Medical Council of India (MCI) on the centralized process of MBBS admission. The decision comes in the case of University, whereby the varsity had had sought regularization of admissions of 15 students to whom the MBBS seats were given on its own accord after the same had become vacant from the Centralized Process of Admission. The varsity had earlier applied to the single bench which had denied any relief to it, pursuant to this, it moved the higher bench of the HC. At that hearing, the bench had expressed its anguish over the fact that every year when the admissions for the medical courses commence, it has had the occasion to witness chaos. The bench disappointedly stated, “This is yet another example where the Court needs to express its anguish over the insensitivity of the college in admitting students flouting the set rules and regulations of the centralized process of admission. The issue that arises for consideration before this court is whether the petitioners could have on their own granted admission to 15 students on the seats which became vacant on withdrawal of admissions by the students who were initially allotted admission in the Centralized Process of Admission.” Before admitting the students on its own, the varsity had said that it had in fact informed Admission Committee for Professional Undergraduate Medical Educational Courses (ACPUGMEC) to furnish a merit list so that in the eventuality of the seat falling vacant, the University can fill the same by offering the same to the next meritorious candidate. Despite such request and in absence of any active response from the ACPUGMEC and since the time frame of 31.08.2017 was fast approaching, it had no alternative but issue an advertisement in two newspapers inviting applications from meritorious students, the university had submitted After going through all the submissions, the bench observed that as per the MCI regulations on MBBS admission process, the varsity could not have carried out the process of admission on their own. Even merit has been compromised in the admission process conducted by the university further implying that the MCI's decision and the ACPUGMEC stance are not at fault, the bench had added. Aggrieved with the single bench's decision, the university approached the higher bench of honorable Chief Justice Vikram Nath and Justice A J Shastri who has now imposed a fine of Rs 2.50 crore on the University for admitting 15 students to its medical course without the consent of the centralized admission committee, reports Mirror. However, the court asked the students to make a representation before the state government to regularize their admission. Source- Desh Gujarat, Docplexus Dec 1, 2019 Page 10 One in 4 young people 'addicted' to smartphones: Study

Almost a quarter of young people are so dependent on their smartphones that they feel panicky or upset when the phone is unavailable, according to a global study. By analysing literature published since 2011 when smartphones first became widespread, the range of studies showed that 10-30 per cent of children and young people used their smartphones in a dysfunctional way. This means an average of 23 per cent of them were showing problematic smartphone usage (PSU), according to the researchers from King's College London in the UK. PSU was defined as any behaviour linked to smartphones that have the features of addiction, such as feeling panicky or upset when the phone is unavailable, they said. The behaviour is also characterized by people finding it difficult to control the amount of time spent on the phone, and using the phone to the detriment of other enjoyable activities. The study, published in the journal BMC Psychiatry, is the first to investigate the prevalence of PSU in children and young people at this scale, summarising findings from 41 studies that researched a total of 41,871 teenagers and young people. The 41 studies included 30 from Asia, nine from Europe and two America. As many as 55 per cent of the participants were female,and young women in the 17 to the 19-year-old age group were most likely to have PSU. The researchers also investigated the links of this type of smartphone usage and mental health and found a consistent association between PSU and poor measures of mental health in terms of depressed mood, anxiety, stress, poor sleep quality and educational attainment. "In order to determine whether PSU should be classified as a behavioural addiction we need longitudinal data looking at PSU in relation to more objective health outcomes, as well as evidence that people with PSU struggle to moderate their use," said first author Samantha Sohn from the King's College London. "Our review assesses the effects not just of heavy use, but of dysfunctional smartphone use, and by looking at an 'addicted' pattern of behaviour towards smartphones we have established correlations between this type of dysfunctional behaviour and poorer mental health outcomes," said Ben Carter, also from King's College London. Over the past decade there has been an increase in smartphone use among children and young people and this has occurred at the same time as a rise in common mental disorders in the same age group, the researchers noted. To help clarify the possible association between smartphone use and mental health in children and young people, the researchers investigated patterns of smartphone-related behaviour, rather than smartphone use per se. "Smartphones are here to stay and there is a need to understand the prevalence of problematic smartphone usage. We don't know whether it is the smartphone itself that can be addictive or the apps that people use," said Nicola Kalk from the King's College, London. Source: PTI, London, Dec 02 2019

BILL GATES CONFERS ICMR AWARD TO DR. CYRUS POONAWALLA 17 Nov, 2019 : Dr. Cyrus Poonawalla, Founder and Chairman of Serum Institute of India, was conferred with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) "Lifetime Achievement Medal" for his outstanding contribution in healthcare. The award was presented to Dr. Poonawalla by Bill Gates, Co-Chair, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, at the headquarters of ICMR in New Delhi

Page 11 Parliament passes bill to ban SC: Critically ill must not be e-cigarettes neglected during strike Parliament on Monday passed a bill which seeks to prohibit New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday said the production, trade, transport, storage and advertisement of it intends to evolve a mechanism by which doctors' electronic cigarettes in the country. strlke do not deprive critically ill patients of care and The Prohibition of Electronic Cigarettes Bill, 2019, was derail emergency health services while seeking passed in Rajya Sabha with a voice vote. The bill was passed in responses from the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Lok Sabha earlier this month. The government had issued an and the health ministry. ordinance to ban e-cigarettes in September this year. The new A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justice B law would replace the ordinance. R Gavai and Surya Kant issued notices to IMA "We have done it with very pious intention. There is no Secretary P V Asokan and health secretary Preeti vested interest," Health Minister Harsh Vardhan told the House Sudan on a petition by NGO “People for Better in his reply on the bill. Treatment”, which sought initiation of contempt proceedings against them for allowing a nation wide During the debate on the bill, some members expressed doctors' strike in June. apprehensions that the government had brought this bill under While disagreeing with the petitioner's plea for pressure from tobacco lobby and demanded the ban be initiation of contempt, the SC decided to evolve a extended to raw tobacco and conventional cigarettes. mechanism to ensure that critically ill patients and The minister said that he would be the happiest person on those in need of emergency medical help are not the earth if tobacco could be banned completely. The bill neglected during doctor's strike. defines electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) as electronic The NGO's president Kunal Saha moved the devices that heat a substance, which may contain nicotine and contempt petition alleging regular violation of the SC's other chemicals, to create vapour for inhalation. The bill November 11, 2014 order which was passed after the provides for imprisonment of up to one year, or a fine of up to same NGO had brought to the court's notice a series of one lakh rupees, or both to a first-time violator. strikes by doctors leading to enormous suffering to For any subsequent offence, it says that the crime will be patients and death of some. punishable with an imprisonment of up to three years, along In the November 2014 order the SC had with a fine of up to five lakh rupees. recognized doctors' right to strike work but had said Under the Bill, no person is allowed to use any place for the striking doctors could face disciplinary action from storage of any stock of e-cigarettes. If any person stores any regulatory bodies if anyone approached these bodies stock of e-cigarettes, he will be imprisoned for up to six months with complaint. or slapped with a fine of up to fifty thousand rupees, or both, However, it had disposed of the NGO's PIL, and If an authorized officer believes that any provision of the Bill said “We would only express our desire that doctors, has been contravened, he can search for any place where who carry out a noble service as Gods' agent by saving trade, production, storage or advertising of e-cigarettes is lives of people, should not resort to strikes with nay intermittent cause but undertake their responsibilities being undertaken. with efficiency and utmost sincerity at all times”. Source: PTI, New Delhi, Dec 02 2019

CBI searches HC Judge's premises New Delhi: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday searched the premises of Allahabad High Court Judge S N Shukla and others in Delhi, Lucknow and Meerut in connection with alleged bribery in allowing admission in a private medical institute. The searches, which conducted based on court warrants, are linked to a case registered by the agency on Wednesday Other accused Among those named as accused are Justice Shukla, with the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, I M Quddusi, a retired judge of the Orissa High Court, Bhawana Pandey and Prasad Education Trust. Bhagwan Prasad Yadav, Chairman of the Prasad Institute of Medical Sciences, his son Palash and SudhirGiri of Venkateshwara Medical College (Meerut) have also been arrested. They have been charged with commiting offences under section 102 B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC, read with various provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Source: The Hindu, 7th December 2019 Page 12 Performance of candidates (who studied in China) screening test conducted by National Board of Examination (FMGE) during 2016-2018 Included institutions where more than 100 candidates appeared Name of institution/university Appeared Passed percentage Beihua University 202 31 15.35 Capital Medical University 112 10 10.71 China Medical University 404 47 11.63 Chong Quing University of Medical Sciences 1519 164 10.80 Dali Medical University 647 71 10.97 Dalian Medical University 715 52 7,27 Gianan Medical University 274 9 3.28 Guanqxi Medical University 573 73 15.82 Guangzhou Medical University 335 53 15.82 Hebei Medical University 552 47 8.51 Huazhong University of Science & Technology 134 13 9.70 Jiamus Medical College 685 63 9.20 Jiangsu University 291 17 5.84 Jiangxi College of Traditional Chinese Medicine 125 5 4.00 Jilin Medical University 273 12 4.40 Jinan Medical University 212 53 25.0 Jing Gangshan Medical School 116 7 6.03 Jinh Zhan Medical College 121 35 28.93 Kunming Medical College 209 18 8.4 Liaoning Medical University 195 9 4.62 Nanchag University 401 81 20.20 Nanjing Medical University 294 41 13.95 Nantang Medical College 529 52 9.83 Ningbo University 355 66 18.59 Ningxia Medical University 259 26 10.04 Qingxia Medical University 309 27 8.74 Sichuan Medical University 263 41 15.59 Sochou Medical University, Suzrow 919 77 8.38 South-East University, Nanjing 469 48 10.23 Southern Medical University 971 144 14.83 Sun Yat Sen University of Medical Sciences 151 23 15.29 Suzhou Medical College 291 55 18.90 Taishan Medical College 514 66 12.81 Three Gorge University 377 44 11.67 Tianjin Medical University 923 145 15.71 Weifang Medical College 321 55 17.13 Wenzhou Medical College 232 26 11.21 West China Medical School 380 67 17.63 Wuhan University 1167 114 9.77 Xiamen Medical University 271 60 22,14 Xian Jiaotong University 160 15 9.38 Yangzhou Medical University 216 26 12.04 Yinchun Medical University 238 12 5.04 Zhejian Medical University 119 17 14.29

Page 13 National Board of BoG mulling slashing fees for medical courses Examinations NEW DELHI: In what could prove to be a big relief for medical National Board of Examinations (NBE) is an students, a panel tasked with drafting guidelines for fee autonomous body under the Ministry of Health and Family structure in private medical colleges is mulling slashing fees Welfare (India), Government of India, and established in for half of graduate and post-graduate seats by 70 per cent 1975 at New Delhi as a Society under Delhi Society and 90 per cent respectively. registration act, to standardizing postgraduate medical With the process of constitution of National Medical education and examination in India. Commission currently on, the Union Health Ministry has asked The postgraduate degree awarded by the National Board of the Board of Governors (BoG), vested with powers of the MCI, to Examinations is called the Diplomate of National Board (DNB). The list of recognised qualifications awarded by the prepare draft guidelines for the fee structure in private medical Board in various specialties and super-specialties are colleges and deemed universities from the next academic approved by the Government of India and are included in session. the First Schedule of Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. According to sources, with this reduction planned by the BoG, The National Board of Examinations conducts the largest fees of 50 per cent of MBBS seats in private medical colleges will portfolio of examinations in the field of medicine in India range between Rs 6 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. and perhaps at a Global level. Currently, in a number of states, including Delhi and The National Board of Examinations conducts the following Maharashtra, MBBS students are charged Rs 25 lakh annually. examinations: The fee for the three-year PG courses in several medical · Centralized Entrance Test for admission to DNB colleges ranges between Rs one crore to Rs three crore. Broad Specialties. The NMC Act, which seeks to usher in mega reforms in the · Centralised Entrance Test for admission to DNB Super medical education sector, received the assent of the President Specialties. on August 8 and was notified the same day. The Act provides for · DNB final (exit) examinations. setting up of an NMC in place of the Medical Council of India for · Screening test for Indian Nationals with foreign medical development and regulation of all aspects of medical education, graduate qualifications.(FMGE) profession and institutions. The BoG is learnt to have held consultations with states and · Fellowship Entrance and Exit examinations. sought their suggestions for framing draft guidelines for the fee · AIPGMEE structure. · NEET-PG The Board of Governors has been requested to prepare draft · NEET-MDS guidelines for fee regulation so that it can be used as a base · NEET=SS (Superspecialty) document by NMC, a senior Health Ministry official said. External link: National Board of Examinations - Official The President had dissolved the Medical Council of India Website (MCI) in 2018 and a BoG was appointed to perform its functions. The Clause 1 of sub-section (1) of section 10 of the National Disclosure of FMGE answer keys Medical Commission Act 2019, empowers the Commission to frame guidelines for determination of fees and all other charges will affect doctors' quality in respect of 50 per cent of seats in private medical institutions Answer keys to the qualifying test for allowing foreign and deemed to be universities government under the NMC Act medical graduates to practice in India cannot be disclosed 2019. as it would "dilute the standards" of healthcare, the CIC has Meanwhile, the ministry has also asked private medical and held. dental colleges across the country to charge fee for only the first Information Commissioner Yashovardhan Azad gave this year from students at the time of admission. The Indian Medical order on the plea of an RTI applicant R Seshadri who had Council Act, 1956 had no provision for regulation of fees in sought from the Medical Council of India (MCI) the question private medical colleges. papers along with the solutions, together commonly At present, some states regulate fees of some seats in private referred to as answer keys, for the Foreign Medical colleges through MoUs signed with college managements. In Graduates Examination (FMGE). addition, the Supreme Court has set up committees chaired by Any medical graduate who had passed out from abroad, retired high court judges to fix fees in private colleges as an except some countries like the USA, Canada, New Zealand, interim measure. Deemed to be Universities claim they are not has to undertake the test. covered by these committees. Only after qualifying in it the graduates can practice in Nearly 50 per cent of total MBBS seats in the country are in India as registered medical practitioners. government colleges, which have nominal fees. Of the "...if public disclosure of questions is allowed, this would remaining seats, 50 per cent would be regulated by NMC. lead to dilution of standards by encouraging 'cramming' \This means that almost 75 per cent of total seats in the which would be against the objectives of this screening country would be available at reasonable fees. In the spirit of test," the Information Commissioner said. federalism, the state governments would still have the liberty to The MCI had refused to provide the answer keys citing decide fees for remaining seats in private medical colleges on exemption given under the RTI Act for the information the basis of individual MOUs signed with colleges on the basis of pertaining to commercial confidence, trade secrets or mutual agreement, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan has intellectual property. earlier said. Source: DNA Source: The Economic Times, Dec 08, 2019 Page 14 Doctors need not be called as Abusing elderly parents witnesses in Abhaya case: HC may land you in jail CBI court's order to issue summons to duo quashed Abusing elderly parents may land you in jail for up to six months as the government on Wednesday Kochi: The Kerala High Court on Thursday introduced a bill in the Lok Sabha to ensure welfare of quashed the Thiruvananthapuram Central Bureau of parents and senior citizens. Investigation (CBI) Special Court's order issuing The Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and summons to two doctors, who had conducted a narco- Senior Citizens (Amendment) Bill also has provisions analysis test on the accused in the sister Abhaya for the elderly to claim maintenance and for murder case for examination. mandatory registration of senior citizens' care homes and other such institutions which will have to comply Justice Alexander Thomas, while setting aside the with prescribed minimum standards. order, observed that evidence regarding the The bill, introduced by Social Justice Minister narcoanalysis conducted on the accused was Thawarchand Gehlot, defines 'abuse' as physical, inadmissible in terms of the Supreme Court Judgment verbal, emotional, and economic abuse, neglect and in the Selvivs State of Karnataka case. abandonment, causing assault, injury, physical and mental suffering. Against rights 'Children' in relation to a parent or a senior citizen The Supreme Court had declared in the case that means son or daughter, whether biological, adoptive interrogation techniques such as narco-analyses, lie or stepchild, and includes son-in-law, daughter-in- detector tests, and brain mapping violated an accused law, grandson, granddaughter and legal guardians of person's right against self-incrimination under Article minor children. The bill describes 'parent' as father or 20(3), and his/her right to life and personal liberty mother, whether biological, adoptive or stepparent and includes father-in-law. Mother-in-law and under Article 21 of the Constitution. grandparents. The court made it clear that, no witnesses shall be Source;Sagar Kulkarni, New Delhi, DHNS 12.12.2019 summoned for examination with regard to evidence relating to the narco-analysis test, the lie detector test, and brain mapping. Committee formed to look into The court passed the verdict on a petition filed by seat blocking in medical colleges Thomas Kottur and Sister Stephy, accused in the Bangalore: Abhaya case, challenging the CBI Special Court's order HuThesba Statend's gov coernmentnsent nhasot constituted needed fao committeer termin toat ion orejectingf pregn theiranc pleay: K againstarnat ahek aexamination Medical ofC otheun twocil deliberate upon the issue of seat blocking in medical doctors, who conductednarco-analysistest, as colleges. witnesses/ At a press conference on Wednesday, Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said the committee will be The CBI Special Court had issued summons to headed by Dr. S Sacchidanand, Vice Chancellor of RGUHS. doctors N Krishnaveni and PraveinParvathappa, for The government's move comes in the wake of the medical their examination with respect to the narco-analysis seat-blocking scam which came to light during the IT raid test. on two prominent deemed-to-be medical universities. The Minister said the committee would submit a report The petitioners said the summons were ordered in a week and it was scheduled to meet on Thursday. without hearing the public prosecutor of defence Dr. Narayan also said the Department of Medical counsel. In fact, the final report did not mention any Education plans to introduce virtual clinic at five select facts that had been discovered when they were primary heathcentres on pilot basis to tackle the shortage of specialists. Under this facility doctors will address the subjected to narco-analysis. concerns of patients by sitting in another location. The Source: The Hindu, 13.12.2019 clinics would be functional in the next six months at Raichur, Yadgiri, Molakalmuru, Shikaripura, and Magadi. It will be undertaken by RGUHS. Source: The Hindu, 12.12.2019 Page 15 MBBS, BDS admissions: SC upholds HC order on micro- quota in Punjab's private medical colleges The apex court held that the micro-reservation of 1% in MBBS and BDS courses for children/grandchildren of persons affected by terror and anti-Sikh riots will be applicable to the state quota as well as management quota in all private unaided non-minority medical/dental institutions, as was ruled by HC on July 26.

In a setback to the Punjab government, the Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the Punjab and Haryana High Court's decision on micro-reservation in private medical colleges in the state. With this, the deadlock over the counselling for MBBS and BDS courses being conducted by the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS), Faridkot, came to an end, which was on hold for more than a month due to legal tangle. The apex court held that the micro-reservation of 1% in MBBS and BDS courses for children/grandchildren of persons affected by terror and anti-Sikh riots will be applicable to the state quota as well as management quota in all private unaided non-minority medical/dental institutions, as was ruled by HC on July 26. It, however, overturned the high court order to provide 3% sports quota in the government colleges. The apex court held that under sports quota in the government colleges, the reservation would be 1% as notified by the government, not 3% as ruled by HC. It extended the date of counselling for admissions to MBBS and BDS courses to September 7. As the state will miss the August 31 deadline of the Medical Council of India (MCI) to complete the admissions process, an extension was sought by the state. The court also directed the state government to complete the admission process by September 7. “The SC has held that sports quota will be 1%, while micro-quota to be as per the high court judgement. The matter will be heard after pleadings are completed,” said state government counsel Uttara Babbar. On August 10, the state government filed a special leave petition in the SC challenging the high court's July 26 judgment. On August 19, the SC stayed the high court order to provide 1% micro-reservation in all the private medical and dental colleges in the state. BFUHS RESUMES COUNSELLING With short time left to complete the admissions process, BFUHS announced fresh schedule for the first round of counselling for admission to MBBS and BDS courses. After a delay of more than a month, the university will conduct the first round of counselling to fill over 2,400 MBBS and BDS seats in eight medical and 15 dental colleges. BFUHS on Tuesday opened the online portal for the candidates who applied under the terror/Sikh riots-affected categories for updating their choices or preferences in management quota of private colleges also. The portal will be opened till 5pm on Wednesday. The results of the first online counselling will be announced on August 29 and selected candidates have to join colleges by August 31. SECOND ROUND FROM SEPT 3 The university will hold the second round of counselling (wherein candidates to appear physically) from September 3 at Guru Gobind Singh Medical College, Faridkot. The BFUHS has also invited the NEET-qualified aspirants to submit their applications online till September 1 for All India quota reverted seats. On September 7, the counselling would be held to fill all the vacant seats arising out of the second round due to shifting of candidates in different categories. “There is short time but we will complete the counselling process by September 7,” said BFUHS vice-chancellor Dr Rajbahadur. Source: Parteek Singh Mahal, Hindustan Times, Faridkot 20 August 2019

Page 16 74 petitions in High Court hold up UG medical, dental admissions in?Mumbai The SC on August 13 acted upon a petition filed by ST students who alleged that they were deprived of quota seats as they could not produce caste certificates in time. The SC in its order requested a special bench at the Bombay HC to solve the issue at the earliest and extended the admissions deadline as well. The Bombay high court (HC) has received 74 petitions from students from the scheduled tribe (ST) communities alleging that their constitutional right has been deprived because they were denied documents that entitled them to quota seats. Admissions to undergraduate medical and dental courses have been on hold for more than three weeks now because of the petitions. “These students whose applications for caste certificates were denied by the respective departments for various reasons had also approached the high court earlier, where their petition was rejected. They then approached the Supreme Court (SC), which has directed the HC to look into the matter,” said a senior official from the state common entrance test (CET) cell. The SC on August 13 acted upon a petition filed by ST students who alleged that they were deprived of quota seats as they could not produce caste certificates in time. The SC in its order requested a special bench at the Bombay HC to solve the issue at the earliest and extended the admissions deadline as well. Instead of the original deadline of August 18, the state can now finish filling up all remaining seats in medical and dental institutes by September 8. Students usually get three days to complete their admission formalities after the announcement of an allotment list, but this year the process has taken more than two weeks due to confusion over newly-included seats in dental courses as well as floods in Maharashtra. However, on August 13, the SC called for a stay on UG medical and dental admissions until there is further clarity on petitions filed by students from the ST communities. While the matter is yet to be heard at the HC, the state CET cell is hoping to get the stay on admission lifted. “The court has time till the end of the month to clear this matter whereas we only get one week after that to complete admission. Since the mop-up round as well as the institutional round is yet to take place, this process will take around three weeks. So we will request the court to give us more time,” said Anand Rayate, commissioner, CET cell. Timeline— *July 29, 2019—the second seat allotment list was scheduled to be released at 5pm, but was postponed until July 30, 12pm. Husband's consent not needed for termination of pregnancy: Karnataka Medical Council *July 30—By noon, state CET cell said the updated seat matrix after including 250 surrendered seats from the All India Quota (AIQ) and a new seat allotment list which also included newly approved seats in the dental course will be released by 6pm. The list was eventually released around 12 midnight *July 31—Hours after the second seat allotment list was released, the CET cell released a circular stating that pending clearance from the state medical education department on new increased seats in the economically weaker section (EWS) category, a stay was implemented on the second round of admissions. *August 7—Incessant rains threw the transport system out of gear and following requests from students, CET cell delayed the deadline for students to complete the admissions process. *August 10—In another circular, CET cell released a circular, informing students to confirm their admissions by 5pm on Monday and submit their fees and the necessary documents at the nearest government medical college. The medical college will then process the fees and the documents to the private institute allotted to the student. *August 12—Was the deadline for students approach government medical colleges to complete their admissions process and a new schedule for the remaining admission rounds was to be released on August 13, which had to be stalled once again August 13--Supreme Court called for a stay on UG medical and dental admissions until the Bombay high court clears a petition filed by students from the schedule tribe (ST) communities Source: Shreya Bhandary, Hindustan Times, Mumbai, Aug 13, 2019 Page 17 15% seats to be reserved for all Hospital vicariously liable India students in private medical for Medical Negligence colleges from this year KOCHI: About 7,300 students from other states have committed by its doctors: SC applied for admission to private medical colleges in Kerala. Source: Ashok Kini ,Livelaw 17 Dec 2019 The Supreme Court has observed that a hospital lis State government has decided to allot 15% sears as an All vicariously liable for the acts of negligence committed India Merit seats from this academic year in private medical by the doctors engaged or empanelled to provide colleges. With this the outside state students will now make to medical care. the Kerala Medical rank list based on NEET score set to be The bench of Justice Uday Umesh Lalit and Justice released by the Commissioner of entrance exams (XEE) soon. Indu Malhotra observed thus while upholding an “The self financing medical colleges have 15% NEI quota/. NCDRC order holding a Hospital to be vicariously liable That will remain as it is; From this academic year 15% of the for medical negligence of the Doctors who allegedly remaining 85% seats will be allotted to any student outside the failed to carry out the mandatory check up of state who makes it to the merit list. Some of the students have Retinopathy of Prematurity of a pre-term baby which already opted for admission in private medical colleges here”, led to his total blindness (Maharaja Agrasen Hospital vs said the principal health secretary. Dr Rajan N Kobragade. Master Rishabh Sharma). Referring to Bolam Test and other judgments on All this years, only government medical colleges had all medical negligence, the Court observed that the India merit seats. Till date, the nativity and permanent reasonable standard of care for a premature baby residence in Kerala an essential eligibility while applying for mandates screening and checking up for ROP, it said. MBBS admission. especially in self-financing colleges. In A medical professional should be alert to the hazards effect, all medical seats, were reserved for Keralite students and risks in any professional task he undertakes to the for the MBBS course. extent that other ordinarily competentmambers of the There are 2150 MBBS seats available in 18 private medical profession would be alert. He must bring to any colleges. The fee structure approved by the fee regulatory professional task he undertakes reasonable skill that committee and state government for these colleges is from 5 other ordinarily competent members of his profession lakhs to 6 lakhs per year. The fees for the students outside the would bring'. Upholding the NCDRC findings, the bend awarded a state, will be same as that charged from Kerala native compensation of Rs 76,00.000/- to the boy and the students. mother and issued directives on utilization of the “ As per Supreme court order we opened admissions for the amount it further observed. candidates from other states in private medical colleges and 'It is common experience that when a patient goes have accepted 7300 applications”, said CEE Geeta A. to a hospital he/she goes there on account of the The Supreme court had recently issued an order to open reputation of the hospital and with the hope that due the facility of online submission of applications for admission in and proper care will be taken by the hospital private medical colleges irrespective of their domicile status authorities, If the hospital fails to discharge their up to May 20th to enable students from outside Kerala students duties through their doctors, being employed on job may further reduce. basis of employed on contract basis, it is the hospital which has to justify the acts of commission or omission Source: Preetu Nair, TNN, June 12, 2019 on basis of their doctors'. Emphasis for inspection for establishment of new Medical Colleges and increase of intake capacity in existing medical colleges for 2020-21 The Department of Medical Education, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India in its letter dated 13th December 2019, to the Secretary General, Board of Governors (BOG), Medical Council of India (MCI) has stated that during the intervening time period available with the BOG-MCI, before the National Medical Commission (NMC) becomes fully operational, BOG-MCI may carry out inspections in respect of only the applications for a) Establishment of new Medical Colleges, and b) Increase of intake capacity in existing Medical Colleges presently being processed by them for the year 2020-21 and not the cases related to renewal permission since under NMC act annual renewals which would not be required.

Page 18 No MLA for Suar: HC annuls election of Azam Khan's son PTI, Allahabad, Dec 16 2019 In a jolt to Rampur MP Mohmmad Azam Khan, the Allahabad High Court on Monday annulled the election of senior SP leader's son Mohammad Abdullah Azam Khan as an Uttar Pradesh MLA on the ground that he was underage and not qualified to fight the poll in 2017. A bench of Justice S P Kesarwani declared the election of junior Khan from the Suar assembly segment null and void on a plea by the defeated BSP candidate, Nawab Kazim Ali Khan. Allowing Kazim Khan's election petition, the bench ruled that Abdullah Azam Khan was not qualified to contest the election of the legislative assembly as he had not yet turned 25 when he the filled nomination paper for the assembly election in 2017. In his election petition against Abdullah Khan, Kazim Khan had contended that the elected MLA's actual date of birth was January 1, 1993, and not September 30, 1990, as claimed in the nomination paper. Accordingly, he was yet to reach 25 years of age to become eligible to fight the election, when he filed the nomination papers on January 25, 2017, Kazim Khan had contended. Abdullah Khan was elected as MLA from Suar constituency of Rampur district in Uttar Pradesh on a Samajwadi Party ticket on March 11, 2017. The unsuccessful Bahujan Samaj Party's candidate from the Suar assembly segment, Kazim Khan, had further pointed out in his election petition that educational certificates, passport and visa of Abdullah Khan mentioned January 1, 1993, as his date of birth. But in his nomination papers, Abdullah Khan had mentioned September 30, 1990, as his birth date on the basis of a certificate from Lucknow's Birth and Death registrar. The bench unseated the Suar MLA after examining the entire fact as borne out of various documents, including Abdullah Khan's mother service record, which too had mentioned January 1, 1993. Placing special reliance on the service book of Abdullah Khan's mother, Tazeen Fatima, a former Rajya Sabha MP, Justice Kesarwani said in his, and in his 49-page judgement that it was an "admitted piece of evidence". In its ruling unseating the Suar MLA, the court directed the high court's registrar general to intimate the substance of the verdict to the Election Commission of India and the Uttar Pradesh legislative assembly's speaker to take follow-up actions. To buttress his contention, Kazim Khan, a four-time MLA from Suar, had contended that Azam Khan's son had filed false documents in support of his age. Earlier at one stage, Abdullah Khan's mother appeared as a witness before the court and contended that her son was born on September 30, 1990 as can be seen by her service records, registering the fact that she had taken the maternity leave in 1990 when Abdullah was born The court, however, rejected her claim. Besides her, Dr Uma Singh, a senior gynecologist of Queen Mary's Hospital, Gandhi Memorial and associated hospitals and that of K G Medical College, Lucknow, also appeared in court as a witness. After recording the statement of all witnesses and having heard the arguments of all sides, the court had reserved its judgmentHusban ond September's conse n27t, 2019not needed for termination of pregnancy: Karnataka Medical Council Model Prescription Format For Doctors The Medical Council of India (MCI), in Sept 2016, has amended the Indian Medical Council Regulations (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) in clause 1.5 in relation to the use of the generic name of the drug while writing a prescription. It also issued the model prescription format for the registered medical practitioner. Checklist of revised Prescription Format: 1. Written prescriptions should be legible and in capital letters, the print format is in general, suggested. 2. A brief note on the purpose of medication should be added. 3. Allergies, age and weight of the patient should be included on the prescriptions wherever possible. 4. Generic names of the drug with the exact metric unit, concentration, and dosage form should always be included. 5. The dosage units should be described in full words and not in abbreviated form. 6. A zero should always precede if the amount is below 1 e.g. it should be 0.4 mg, not .4 mg 7. The use of trailing zero after the decimal e.g. 4 mg, not 4.0 mg should be avoided. 8. The use of abbreviations for drug names should be avoided since it is very difficult to comprehend for chemists as well as for other doctors. 9. Specific important instructions should be clearly provided. 10. The usage of words like “Use as directed” is deemed inappropriate. Source- MCI, Faculty, Indian Journal of Medial Research, Maharashtra Medical Council Page 19 Government Selects 25 HC slaps Rs 10,000 cost on Members Of National Medical state for delay in filingof Commission reply by health secretary

The Union Health Ministry 25 members have PATNA: The Patna high court on Tuesday been finalized for the recently constituted National slapped a cost of Rs 10,000on state government over Medical Commission (NMC) failure by health department principal secretary to file The members were selected by drawing of lots which a counter affidavit even after eight weeks' time include 10 Vice Chancellors from different states, 9 members regarding reconstitution of Bihar Council of Medical from the State Medical Councils and 4 part-time members Registration. from the autonomous boards. The draw of lot was held from Last time, the council was constituted way back nominations sent by the state governments, state medical in 2009 andits time period had elapsed in 2012. councils, and union territories. H o w e v e r , e v e n a f t e r a “The work on NMC is being done one time. We a passage of seven years, the government failed to had nine months to select the members of the NMC, reconstitute it. The basic functioning of the council is and within a short span of two months, we have granting registrations to the doctors across the state framed the rules, notified them and also carried out and acting as a regulatory body on complaints the process of selection of the part-time members of the NMC,” said the Union Health Minister. received on indiscipline and unethical practices. The Bench of the Chief Justice Sanjay Karol and The 10 VCs were selected from Tamil Nadu, West Justice Dinesh Kumar Singh, while hearing a PIL filed Bengal, Gujarat, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Punjab, by TauqueerAlam, noticed that the eight weekss'time and Haryana. granted to the principal secretary had already lapsed “To ensure probity and integrity of the highest but no counter affidavit was filed by him before the order, a compact body is being selected through a court on the matter. transparent mechanism and representation of States The time was granted by a division bench of and State Councils in rotation. This will also facilitate Justice Shivaji Pandey and Patthasarathy on faster decision making” he said. September 20 for replying to the court about the The 9 representative members from State latest position on the revival of the council. th Medical Council (SMCs) were chosen from Uttar On July 8 , too, the bench by Justice Pandey Pradesh, Sikkim, Kerala, Karnataka, Uttarakhand, had directed the health department principal Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, and Manipur. secretary to file a specific reply, to give a definite The 4 part-time members which were selected time frame bearing note of the urgency as well as his from autonomous boards- Undergraduate (UG), Post obligation to enc\sure compliance. The court had Graduate (PG), Medical Assessment and Rating Board asked by what time period the council would be (MARD) and Ethics and Registration Board were reconstituted. picked Tripura, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland and The court was miffed by a vague counter Madhya Pradesh. affidavit submitted by additional director of health Other NMC members including one senior officer of department in which nothing clear was mentioned Additional secretary rank, one director from AIIMS and two about steps taken or time frame set for reconstitution directors from PGIMER-Chandigarh, JIGMER-Pondicherry, of the council. Only after this , a reply was sought Tata Memorial Hospital, North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional from the principal secretary. Institute of Health and Medical Sciences (NEIGRIHMS)- Shilong and All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health Source: The Times of India, November 19 1019 (AIIHPH)- Kolkata. Source: Live Mint

Page 20 Government Slackens NEET -PG Course Cut Off India has a shortage of 6 million doctors and according to the World Health Organization, there is one government doctor for every 10,189 people. An issue relating to this alarming topic has been raised recently. The Indian medical sector is facing the fretting situation, as out of 3,833 seats of medical super specialty nearly 700 seats remained vacant. This startling news has forced the government to slacken eligibility cut-off because these many super-specialty seats cannot go vacant. The first round of counseling under the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test revealed that one in every five super-specialty seats has remained vacant. Following is the list of most affected super-specialties: Cardio-thoracic and vascular surgery (CTVS) · Number of vacant seats:130 out of 185 (i.e. 7 in every 10) · The percentile for eligibility reduced to 20 from 50 Pediatric surgery · 111 out of 162 seats are vacant · The percentile for eligibility reduced to 20 from 50 Cardiology · The percentile for eligibility reduced to 20 from 50 Currently, there are around 30 medical super specialties. The percentile for all the 30 specialties are reduced to 40 from 50, except the three mentioned above in which it has reduced to 20. Thus, students who are willing to take part in the second round of NEET-super specialty counseling can be benefitted from these reduced cut-offs. The Medical Council of India has started an investigation on why doctors are not interested in super-specialty courses like CTVS, cardiology, and pediatric surgery which are actually critical to the country's future. However, many doctors have opted for gastroenterology, endocrinology, radiology, and surgical oncology where nearly all the seats have been occupied this year. Source: The Times of India, Economic Times

Karnataka: 1.28L regd docs, 56K want to work elsewhere Source: Reshma Ravishanker, DHNS, Bengaluru , DEC 23 2019, The number of doctors that have taken No Objection Certificates (NOC) from the Karnataka Medical Council to practice in a different state has raised eyebrows over whether the state has been failing to retain its doctors or whether there is a shortage of medical professionals in Karnataka. Going by the statistics that the Karnataka Medical Council (KMC) has tabulated, out of 1.28 lakh doctors that registered with the KMC,Hu s56,ba703nd hav's ec otakennse na tNOC no tto n epreacticeded info otherr ter states.mina tKMCion hasof pthere gresponsibilitnancy: yK ofar nregisteringataka Malle dallopathyical C odoctors.uncil Dr H Veerabhadrappa, president, KMC, said the data has been gathered over the years. However, the Indian Medical Registry, maintained by the Indian Medical Council has a different figure to tell. As per the Indian Medical Registry, there are 1.19 lakh doctors in the state. Dr Veerabhadrappa attributed these numbers to students from other states studying in Karnataka. “Students from all over the country come to Karnataka and study. They go back to their hometowns to practice. Hence these numbers,” said Dr Veerabhadrappa... However, when DH verified with RGUHS, Dr S Sachidananda, vice-chancellor, RGUHS said that Karnataka had 8,000 undergraduate seats and 2,800 post-graduate seats. Of these, only about 30% were taken by students from other states. Responding to this, Dr Nagendra Swamy, principal coordinator, Federation of Healthcare Associations, Karnataka said that the numbers seemed unrealistic. “I do not think these figures are right,” he ascertained. Dr Ravindra, president, IMA Rajajinagar, also expressed a similar opinion. “The KMC has to update data to the Indian Medical Registry. Why do the numbers vary? If the KMC data is right, then policymaking will be affected as the other registry has wrong data”, he said. Citing the annual health report by the department of health and family welfare, Dr Ravindra said that there were 24,523 establishments that have been registered under the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act. “Even if it is two doctors per establishment, that would imply that there is a shortage, if Karnataka is just left with these many doctors,” he said. Dr Pankaj Kumar Pandey, commissioner of the department of health and family welfare, said that this would be an issue that the department might be concerned with. “Students come from other states as medical education is good here. We also have single establishment doctors. The numbers could match that way,” he said.

Page 21 Pay Rs 76L for medical negligence: SC tells Delhi hosp Source: Ashish Tripathi, DHNS, New Delhi, DEC 25 2019

The Supreme Court has directed a Delhi-based hospital and its doctors to pay Rs 76 lakh compensation to a 14-year- old boy for medical negligence and total lack of care, on their failure to conduct retinopathy of prematurity (ROP) within time of his pre-mature birth, leading to total blindness. The court said it is well established that a hospital is vicariously liable for the acts of negligence committed by the doctors engaged or empanelled to provide medical care, since a patient goes there on account of the its reputation. A bench of Justices U U Lalit and Indu Malhotra held Maharaja Agrasen Hospital, a super specialty hospital, and doctors G S Kochhar and Naveen Jain, the consultant paediatricians and S N Jha, senior consultant ophthalmologist jointly and severally liable to pay to the amount to master Rishabh Sharma for “gross deficiency in service”. The court said grant of compensation to remedy the wrong of medical negligence was within the realm of law of torts. It is based on the principle of 'Restitutio ad integrum' which provided that a person was entitled to damages which should as nearlyas possible get that sum of money which would put him in the same position as he would have been if he had not sustained the wrong. Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP), one of the major emerging causes of childhood blindness, is a visually progressive disease, which can be treated successfully if it is diagnosed on time. The doctors here failed to advise or guide the parents about the possibility of the disease. They did not examine the baby as per standard protocol, the court said, upholding the decision of the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission but enhancing the compensation amount. The child barely received education for 4 years, up to 5th standard since he was forced to leave school over parent's inability to bear his educational, co-curricular and transportation expenses. On account of the negligence of the appellants, the disease remained undiagnosed until December 3, 2005, when the baby was 8 months old. By this time, the ROP had reached a stage, when it became irreversible leading to total blindness, the court said Pvt docs can now teach at medical colleges Aditi Tandon, Tribune News Service New Delhi, Dec 26, 2019 Medical colleges can now hire private doctors, including overseas Indians, as teachers for undergraduate and postgraduate classes. In a major move aimed at tiding over faculty crunch and enabling interested private practitioners to teach, the government has opened up UF and PG medical teachings to qualified doctors across private healthcare sector. The new set of teachers will be called “visiting faculty”. The Medical Council of India Board of Governors has created the new faculty set by amending existing regulations on minimum qualification for teachers in medical institutions. Old regulations of 1998 did n't permit private practitioners to teach in medical colleges. Amended rules were notified today and come into force immediately, Chairmna, MCI Board of Governors VK Paul told The Tribune today that “any private or government medical college can now hire visiting faculty but this hiring will be over and above the existing faculty strength of the department”. Rules mention that anyone who possesses postgraduate degree in the concerned specialty and a minimum of eight years work experience in that specialty after obtaining the PG degree will be eligible for appointment as visiting faculty, but this hiring will be over and above the existing faculty strength of the department”. Simply put, top medics like Dr Naresh Trehan can now teach medicine, if they want. New regulations define visiting faculty as persons working in private health care non-governmental organizations and retired medical personnel interested in teaching” and add: “Overseas Citizens of India can also be appointed as visiting faculty”/ Rules mention that anyone who possesses postgraduate degree in the concerned specialty and a minimum of eight years work experience in the specialty after obtaining the PG degree will be eligible for appointment as visiting faculty. “The maximum age limit for such an appointment will be 70 years”, said Dr Paul adding that visiting faculty strength of a department can't exceed 50 per cent of its total faculty strength. The new rule department of the specialty concerned; HoD from any other specialty and at least one won't cover AIIMS, PGI and JIPMER which are institutions of national importance created under standalone Acts of Parliament. The visiting faculty will be selected by a committee comprising director, principal or dean of the medical college or institution who will chair the committee, head of expert on the subject from a medical college outside the city. “To ensure that experts so hired remained serious about their role, students' feedback will be taken into consideration for granting extension and re-appointment to them. Page 22 National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP) Sri Sanjeeva Kumar, Special Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India has notified the change in nomenclature of RNTCP to NTEP, on 30th Dec, 2019. The Government of India has committed to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending Tuberculosis(TB) by 2025, five years ahead of Global Targets. In view of the ambitious target, a change in the name of the programme, representative of the ultimate goal of eliminating TB disease was thought to be necessary. Therefore, with the approval of the competent authority, it has been decided that henceforth, the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program (RNTCP) shall be for all intent and purposes known as “National Tuberculosis Elimination Program (NTEP)” Private hospitals found doing procedures reserved for govt. units; fines worth - 4.6 cr levied The Centre's ambitious healthcare insurance scheme — Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) — under the National Health Authority (NHA) has noted that as per details provided by the States, more than 390 hospitals of the over 19,000 empanelled have been served show cause notices/suspended/de-empanelled across nine States for alleged fraud. Of these, 171 hospitals have been de-empanelled. FIRs have been lodged against six hospitals in Uttarakhand and Jharkhand. The quantum of penalties levied on the listed hospitals is more than ? 4.6 crore. “Close watch is also maintained on wrongful enrolment of beneficiaries; 3,785 Village Level Entrepreneurs (positioned at Common Service Centres) / Pradhan Mantri Arogya Mitras (positioned at PM-JAY empanelled hospitals) have been deactivated so far,” a senior NHA official said on Saturday. The official confirmed that the National Anti-Fraud Unit (NAFU) at the National Health Authority (NHA) has detected the suspected fraud using the e-cards on basis of algorithms developed internally. The cover provided under the PM-JAY health insurance scheme is ? 5 lakh per family. Abuse-prone packages “There are certain packages, especially abuse prone, which are reserved for government hospitals by the State authorities. It was detected that private hospitals were performing these government reserved procedures and blocking/submitting the same under a different package name or as a unspecified package. There is no package under the PM-JAY scheme which is free for government hospitals,” added the official. However, the NHA maintained that responsibility for closure action against fraudulent entities and fake cards lies with State health agencies which carry out their due diligence before initiating action. Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab were among the States where frauds were detected in at different stages of the implementation of the PM-JAY. Onus on States “We have issued comprehensive set of anti-fraud guidelines from the time of launch of the scheme and as a safeguard, pre-authorisation is required for most packages. All the packages prone to fraud/abuse have been reserved for public hospitals and need mandatory pre-authorisation. All claims require mandatory supporting documents before approval and payment. Also we conduct regular monitoring of empanelled hospitals,” the NHA official noted. He added that suspicious cases being triggered by NAFU forensics team are regularly shared with the States for conducting medical audits. “Number of triggered transactions shared with States so far amount to 0.25% of total admissions out of which 0.07% of total admissions have been confirmed as fraud so far. 0.58% cases of suspect e-cards have been sent to the States for investigation. Also almost all States have dedicated anti-fraud units now,” the official said. Source: Bindu ShajanPerappadan, The Hindu, New Delhi 4.01.2020 Chairman of National Medical Commission Prof Satish Chandra Sharma, Professor and Head of the Department of ENT, Head and Neck Surgery, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi has been appointed as the Chairman of National Medical Commission (NMC), which frames the policies to regulate medical institutions and medical profession in the country. Rakesh Kumar Vats, the secretary general in the board of governors of the Medical Council of India(MCI), has been appointed as the secretary of the Commission

Page 23 IIT Kharagpur to start MBBS course from 2021 with 50 seats Source: Medogle News Network 21-10-2019 IIT Kharagpur is likely to roll out its ambitious MBBS programme with an initial intake capacity of 50 students from the 2021-22 academic session. The OPD services in the 400-bed superspecialty hospital is likely to start by the end of the year. Professor Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya, the officiating director, said: “We plan to start the OPD services this year. By early next year, we plan to start the indoor facilities in the first phase with 400 beds. Once the hospital is operational, we plan to roll out the MBBS curriculum as per MCI guidelines.” The plan in the second phase is to scale it up to a 750-bed hospital and increase the intake capacity to 100 MBBS students,” Bhattacharyya added. He said, “IIT Kharagpur will award the MBBS and postgraduate degrees, chart out the curriculum and manage the academic affairs while the day-to-day hospital management will be run by the special purpose vehicle floated under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. The hospital's board of directors will be headed by the IIT Kharagpur director and will include senior IIT faculty.” The hospital, he added, will be run on a cross-subsidy model in a not-for-profit mode. Sources said 10% of the beds would be free and 65% of the beds would be charged as per the rates in the central and state health insurance schemes.

PM lays foundation stone of Atal Medical University , all medical colleges to be under its ambit

Medogle News Network | 25-12-2019 Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a plaque to mark the laying of foundation stone of Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University in Lucknow today. Speaking on the occasion he said that, it is also a coincidence that on the day of Good Governance Day, the statue of Atal ji has been unveiled in the building from which the UP government runs. This magnificent statue of him will inspire people working in Lok Bhavan for good governance and public service, he added. Prime Minister during his address said in coming years Atal Medical University will bring medical, dental, paramedical and nursing colleges in the state under one umbrella. All government & private medical colleges will be affiliated to it, quoted ANI UP.

The doctor-population ratio in India is 1:1456 against WHO recommendation Source: Samiksha Goel, DHNS, Bengaluru, JAN 31 2020 The Economic Survey 2019-20 has released information regarding the medical infrastructure evincing a shortage of doctors in the country. The doctor-population ratio in India is 1:1456 against the WHO recommendation of 1:1000. The survey also mentions the initiatives the government has taken to address the shortage of doctors. "In the last five years, the government has sanctioned 141 new medical colleges. The maximum intake capacity at MBBS level has been increased from150 to 250, the norms for setting up of Medical Colleges in terms of requirement of land, faculty, staff bed strength etc have been rationalized," said the survey. The government operates Centrally Sponsored Scheme–establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing District/Referral Hospitals' with fund sharing between Centre and States. As a result, the number of MBBS and PG seats have increased by 227,235 and 15,000 respectively," it added. The Government, says the survey, has also supported States to add nearly 2.51 lakh additional health human resources including 10,767 General Duty Medical Officers, 3062 Specialists, 61,660 Staff Nurses, 84,077 Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), 42,031 Paramedics, 414 Public Health Managers and 17,265 Programme Management staff on a contractual basis. Page 24 ELECTION TO KARNATAKA MEDICAL COUNCIL The elections to posts of membership of Karnataka Medical Council was held revenue division-wise (4) on 23rd January 2020 and the results were declared on 25th January 2020. The following have emerged as successful. Our hearty congratulations to them. Revenue division Medical Practitioners Teachers 1. Bengaluru Dr. R.. Ravindra Dr. T. A .Veerabhadrayya Dr N. Ravi 2. Mysuru Dr. H. N. Ravindra Dr. Honnegowda Dr. K. Ravi 3. Belagavi Dr. Pavankumar Ninganagowda Patil Dr. Sudhir R. Jambagi Dr. SorgaviVenkatehRamappa 4. Kalaburagi Dr. Yogananda Reddy Y.C. Dr. Shantesh Patil Dr Sharanbasappa S. Karbhari

Nominations to KMC The following persons have been nominated for a Period of 3 Years to KMC by the State Government 1. Dr. Suresh N.V. 2. Dr. Prashant B. Katakol 3. Dr Gopalkrishna Bhat B. 4. Dr. H. Veerabhadrappa Dr. Rajakumar J.C. (Dental) has been nominated for a period of one year(rotation). Hearty congratulations! Padma Awards 2020 Conferred To 13 Unsung Heroes of Medicine Source: Meghna A Singhania, 26 Jan 2020 New Delhi: Continuing with the tradition of unsung heroes of the country, the government today conferred 141 Padma Awards marking the celebrations of Republic day and honouring their contributions to the society Among those honoured include 13 doctors, who may-may not be in public eye, but have been contributing to the health of nation through their remarkable service. Padma awards — one of the highest civilian Awards of the country, are conferred in three categories, namely, Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri. This year, while no doctor has made to the list of Padma Vibhushan, 1 doctor has been conferred Padma Bhushan, while 12 have been honoured with Padma Shri iPadma Bhushan TseringLandol- Ladakh- One of the pioneers of women''s health in Ladakh region, Dr TseringLandol was one of the first gynaecologist in the cold hilly desert area, providing medical care to women in the difficult terrain through her a clinic the Ladakh Heart Foundation, a charitable medical facility. Given the difficult terrain in region, the 75-year old doctor has dedicated her life to women's health, Padma Shri 1. Dr Yogi Aeron- Uttarakhand- The octogenarian plastic surgeon, is known around the area of Dehradun for not just his skill but providing free treatment to burn patients who cannot afford the same. With more than 5000 free surgeries to his credit, the 82 year old KGMU pass out is the go to man in the area as well as afar for burn victims and those attacked by animals. Even the government hospitals in the area are seen referring patients to his centre for treatment 2. Dr Padmavathy Bandopadhyay- Uttar Pradesh- Known for a number of firsts, setting examples for women across the world Dr PadmavathyBandopadhyay is the first woman in the history of Indian Air Force to be promoted to

Page 25 the rank of Air Marshal. A graduate of Armed Force Medical college in Pune, she had the distinction of being the first woman officer to become an aviation medicine specialist. Being the first woman Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Society of India, she was also the first Indian woman to have conducted scientific research at the North Pole. She is also the first woman officer to have completed the Defence Service Staff College course in 1978 and to command the IAF's Central Medical Establishment (CME). Padma Bandopadhyay was also the first woman officer of the Indian Air Force to be promoted to the rank of Air Vice Marshal. Dr Padma Bandopadhyay was awarded the VisishtSeva Medal for her meritorious service during the 1971 Indo-Pak conflict, as she and her husband made key contributions at the Halwara airbase in Punjab during the war 3. Dr Sushovan Banerjee- West Bengal- An MBBS graduate of RG Kar Medical college, and PG Pathology from Calcutta University, Dr Bandopadya was working in London after pursuing his diploma in Haemotology there, when in 1960s, he decided to come back to his country and serve the poor. Despite various job offers, in 1964, the doctor relocated to his village in Bolapur, West Bengal and has been treating his patients for a consultation fee of Rs 1 since then. Because of his fees, the 81 year old doctor is popularly called, " EkTakar doctor" 4. Dr Digambar Behera- Chandigarh- A former Head of the Department of Pulmonary Medicine, PGIMER, Dr Behera is known for his contributions to the field of Chest medicine and TB Medicine in India. He is a pioneer of lung cancer chemotherapy as well as the chairman of the national task force of the National Tuberculosis Elimination Program. 5. Dr Bangalore Gangadhar- Karnataka- Dr BN Gangadhar, director of the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences, is a well-known psychiatrist having more than 30 years of extensive experience in the field of mental health, from both clinical and academic perspectives. For his contribution to the field of mental he has previously been conferred the prestigious Sir C.V. Raman Award in 1999 and the BC Roy Award in 2010. 6. Dr Leela Joshi- Madhya Pradesh- Dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the tribal woman in the MP and Chattisgarh area, gynaecologist Dr Joshi has dedicated her life being engaged in tribal dominated areas providing free treatment to women with anemia, pregnancies and other issues. For her immense contribution to the tribals, she was also named in the list of 100 effective women of the country in the list of Department of Women and Child Development. 7. Dr Ravi Kannan R- Assam- A prominent practicing surgical Oncologist in Chennai, Dr Kannan moved to the Barak Valley Assam in June 2007, coming in aid to the ailing Cachar Cancer Hospital Society that was struggling with resources and serving the patients and an area where the incidence of cancer is much higher.( nearest hospital 300 km away) Under his leadership, the hospital has made a remarkable journey and is providing treatment to over 3000 new and 14000 follow-up patients annually, 80% of these patients being daily wage earners.In his journey the doctor has treated over 70,000 cancer patients free of cost in Barak valley including accommodation, food, employment and spreading awareness. 8. Dr Arunoday Mondal- West Bengal - Serving in the remote forest areas of Sunderbans, Dr Arunoday Mondal set up a free medical service centre, in 2000, and since then has been providing free treatment to the locals in the remote area. His cetnre "SUJAN" has steering ahead with expansion in multidirectional ushering ventures like education, social service etc. Arunoday Mondal, known as 'SunderbankeSujan' travels six hours every weekend to treat patients in remote Sundarban villages. 9. Dr Shanti Roy - Bihar- A gynaecologist from Patna, Dr Shanti Roy is a retired Professor and HOD, Gynaecology department, Patna Medical College. Specializing the field of women's health, Dr Shanti has dedicated her life to not just promoting women's well-being but also matters of encouragement of women in other domains of life. 10. Dr Kushal Konwar Sharma- Assam- Kushal KnowarSarma, also known as the Elephant Doctor a veterinarian in Guwahati, has devoted his life to the conservation of Asian elephants. Interestingly, he has not taken a single weekend off in the last 30 years as per media reports. He is acclaimed for treating more than 700 elephants every year. He has pioneered research in elephant anesthetics, especially using remote tranquilizing injection technique. 11. Dr Gurdip Singh- Gujarat 12. Dr Sandra Desa Souza- Maharashtra - A noted ENT surgeon practicing in Bombay, Dr Souza was one of the first ENT surgeons in the country to perform artificial ear operations, is credited to have given the gift of hearing to thousands of patients. She was the first woman surgeon to pioneer the Cochlear implant surgery in India and Asia in the year 1987 .

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