The Medical Council of India (MCI) is set to advise and warn in their new ethical guidelines under the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) (Amendment) Regulations, 2015. For the first time, these guidelines will define punishment for sinful doctors based on the value of favors or gifts received from Pharma Companies. While the Indian Medical Council Regulations, 2009 bar doctors from receiving freebies, the punishment, if caught, is now subject to the discretion of either the central or the state councils’ ethics committee. A voluntary code of conduct for pharmaceutical companies came into effect from January 2015.To decide that it has to made mandatory the review is still awaiting.
As per the new guidelines any doctor accepting gifts, travel facilities, hospitality, cash or monetary grants worth Rs 5,000 to Rs 10,000 from a pharma company their names would be removed from state and national medical register for the period of three months. They cannot practice medicine without registration with either the state medical council or the central council.
The penalty would be extended for six months if the freebie is between 10,000 and 50,000. And if priced Rs.50, 000 to Rs 1lakh, the sinful doctor’s name would remain stuck off the register for one year.
For free gifts amounting to more than Rs 1 lakh the period would be more than a year, subject to the discretion of the ethics committee.
If the lawbreakers repeat this the punishment should be on case to case basis, depending on the enormity of the offence.
An suspected link between some pharmaceutical companies and dishonest doctors is widely recognized as one of the key reasons behind rising drug prices, although companies maintain that the margins are to account for research and development work.
The gifts to doctors pay important role into marketing cost of drugs. Due to this the price raised and effect whole industry flagrantly.
Around 320 doctors of Maharashtra got summoned by MCI for accepting gifts which consists of flats, jewels and a foreign trips too. The research work should have all necessary clearances, fulfilling the legal conditions, funding disclosed publicly and facilities to the volunteers.
