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Demands stringent action against those practicing without a lice
New Delhi, June 05, 2017: The IMA has urged the government to introduce more stringent laws to clamp down on those practicing medicine without a license, particularly in the rural areas. This is yet another issue raised by the IMA, which will eventually lead up to the Dilli Chalo movement on 6th June 2017. Thousands of doctors, MBBS students, and others in the fraternity are expected to be a part of this movement which will be followed by deliberations on some of the key issues being faced by the medical community today.
The demand for an anti-quack act comes in the wake of the need to plug gaps that remain in the Clinical Establishment Act. The IMA is of the opinion that the old act had been formulated to benefit corporate entities.
Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee Dr K K Aggarwal, National President Indian Medical Association (IMA) and President Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Dr RN Tandon – Honorary Secretary General IMA in a joint statement, said, “A knife in the hands of an unlearned person and modern medicine in the hands of quacks, chemists, and doctors of other systems of medicine can put the life of many in danger. There are many cases of patients in print and electronic media every day, who have suffered major health setback or even died while receiving allopathic treatment from unqualified quacks. The tip of the iceberg is that many such cases go unreported. We urge the government to introduce an anti-quack act to make medical practitioners more accountable.”
There is a variety of fake medical degrees like electro-homeopathy, indo-allopathy, and those with such degrees call themselves as practitioners of Alternative System of Medicine. Under this guise, they practice Modern Medicine. There is a need to take action against such quacks wherever they are found.
Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, said, “There is lack of awareness among state governments, the legislature(s), judiciary, and doctors themselves regarding the danger posed by quacks and about non-entitlement of practitioners of Indian Medicine who are practicing Modern Medicine. This confusion has been further compounded by various contradictory government and court orders. All this has put the health of the people especially the poor, critically ill, women, and children, at stake. There is, thus, an urgent need to act against quacks wherever any of us come across them.”
Dilli Chalo will be a silent satyagraha by doctors from all over India joining in person or digitally through a live webcast. The IMA is also initiating a signature campaign on the issues at hand on social media and has urged all doctors to join and collect hundreds of thousands of signatures to demand justice from the government.
