The Tamil Nadu Medical Council seems to be going through a crisis with the regulatory body unable to take actions against negligent doctors because of the lack of an elected 10-member council.
The Times of India reports that in June, after the council’s tenure ended following the members of the council making allegations of mismanagement and abuse of powers, the Madras High Court had appointed Justice K Venkataraman as administrator to the council. The main duty of the administrator was to conduct elections within three months.
Venkataraman told ToI that they have found three doctors guilty of negligence by a disciplinary committee and also received 20 more complaints against doctors, but they will not be able to take action as there is no elected council.
In May last year, Chennai-based Santosh underwent a surgery at the Advanced Robotic Hair Transplant Centre in Nungambakkam, a salon that has a license only for hair cutting and styling. The three doctors were conducting procedures that were almost minor surgeries, without any requisite clearance.
The judge has asked for information from doctors in at least five cases, but no action can be taken against them. According to the rules, the council needs to have a three-member disciplinary committee to conduct the inquiry. The council is yet to elect seven members and one of the positions of the government nominees is vacant. Venkataraman added that even if government nominates one doctor, they can only recommend action.
He also said that the elections cannot be conducted till December as the electoral rolls in the council are not updated, reported ToI. The council has about 1.25 lakh doctors registered, but that list has not been updated for long that they have had to put out advertisements asking for change in address in electoral rolls before August 28. Even for that, they have not received a good response, so they have asked for help from doctor associations.