The unholy nexus between these doctors and the company , which manufactures and sells drugs in the cardiovascular, diabetes, gastro and ortho segments, is now being probed by the AP State Medical Council after it was asked to take strong action by the Medical Council of India (MCI).
In a recent five-page order, the state medical council was asked to issue notices to all the 44 doctors before initiating disciplinary action for violation of MCI (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.
“The MCI is investigating the role of the doctors for accepting illegal gratification from a pharma company , following an anonymous complaint in September, 2013. The case has now been entrusted to the state medical council for necessary action,“ said Dr K Ramesh Reddy , MCI member.
“The case is against the Ahmedabad firm, against whom an anonymous complaint was lodged with ministry of chemicals and fertilizers department of pharmaceuticals, be fore it reached the MCI,“ he said.
Early in February this year, Union health minister JP Nadda said in a written reply to Lok Sabha that they received a complaint against severa doctors for allegedly receiving cash payments and accepting foreign trips from the Ahmedabad-based company The documents reveal that 144 of the 600 doctors made all-expenses-paid trips to cities in USA, Dubai and other unspecified destinations in the name of attending conferences.
While 144 went to the US to attend American Diabetes' Association Conference, the remaining went to Dubai and other unspecified destinations with their family . Thirty other doctors (with their AP registration numbers mentioned in the MCI documents) preferred cash to foreign junkets. Each of them collected money ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh and one doctor was content with a laptop.
As per 6.8.1 of the conduct rules of the Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, doctors are forbidden from accepting gifts or junkets.“If proved, licences of the erring doctors can be cancelled for up to two years,“ said Dr Ramesh Reddy .
However, AP state medical council members are hardly surprised about the nexus. “The nexus runs deep as all major pharma companies bribe doctors to ensure that their drugs capture the market,“ said an ethics committee member, who is now probing the case against these 600 doctors.
Not surprisingly , many top notch city-based diagnostic centres too aggressively promote their facilities by luring doctors with freebies.
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