National Integrated Medical Association
Pathardi Branch

खेड्यांसाठी झटपट डॉक्‍टर :

(सकाळ)

“Health secretary (Sujatha Rao) has written to the human resource development (HRD) ministry giving a sketch of the problems that may arise if medical education is brought under the NCHER,” he said.

The speculations arose after President Pratibha Patil Saturday signed an ordinance dissolving the Medical Council of India (MCI) and replacing it with a seven-member committee.

The government decided to bring the ordinance after a crisis hit the regulatory body when its president Ketan Desai was arrested April 22 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs.two crore to accord recognition to a medical college in Punjab though it did not meet MCI standards. Desai gave his resignation to the health ministry Wednesday.

A seven-member panel, led by eminent gastroenterologist S.K. Sarin, will replace the MCI and serve for a period of one year.

The official said that there were little chances of revival of the MCI, which had been tasked to oversee the standards of medical education in India, grant recognition to medical degrees, give accreditation to medical colleges, register medical practitioners and monitor medical practice in the country.

“The MCI may or may not be revived, but medical education should be left with the health ministry,” he said, adding talks are likely to be held between the two ministries this week.

The letter written to HRD Secretary Vibha Puri Das included issues like affiliation of medical college to universities, problems that may come in drafting and approving the syllabus and possibility of conflicts between the college management and hospital management to which the colleges are attached.

“Since medical education is linked with hospitals, it is not good to have them under different ministries,” the official said.

The letter also expressed the health ministry’s desire to have a separate National Council for Human Resources in Health as announced by President Patil in her speech to the joint session of Parliament last year.

“We can have a body overlooking all aspects of medical education including nursing, dentistry, and other subjects,” he said.

The proposed National Council for Human Resources in Health will separate regulation of medical education from regulation of medical practice. Both will be under the health ministry.

Sources from the HRD ministry said that the draft NCHER bill will be introduced in the monsoon session of parliament.

State governments had their representatives in the dissolved Medical Council, it said.

“Since health is a state subject and medical education is on the concurrent list, it was mandatory for the central government to have consulted state governments by calling an emergency meeting of the Central Council,” the party politburo said in a statement.

The CPI-M said the seven-member board of governors now appointed through the ordinance consists entirely of centrally-nominated people. “This is a violation of federal principles and is an injustice to the states,” it said.

The government should have taken parliament into confidence before dissolving an autonomous body set up by an Act of parliament, the CPI-M said.

President Pratibha Patil Saturday signed an ordinance dissolving the statutory regulatory body and replacing it with a seven-member committee.

The party said the ordinance reflected a policy of overcentralisation of powers in the hands of the central government, which did damage to the federal character of the constitution.

The party, however, welcomed the removal of Ketan Desai from the post of director of MCI, calling it “a much belated and required step”.

“The prima facie evidence of corruption at the top levels of MCI required firm government intervention,” it said.

The government decided to bring the ordinance after a crisis hit the regulatory body when its president was arrested April 22 by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for allegedly taking a bribe of Rs.2 crore to recognise a medical college in Punjab even though it did not meet MCI standards.

Desai had given his resignation to the health ministry last Wednesday.

The MCI, a statutory body tasked to oversee the standards of medical education in India, granted recognition to medical degrees, gave accreditation to medical colleges, registered medical practitioners and monitored medical practice in the country.

–Indo-Asian News service

May 16th, 2010

PTI

Describing homeopathy as "witchcraft", a body of junior doctors in Britain has voted overwhelmingly to seek a blanket ban on the practice of the alternative
medicine. Hundreds of members of the British Medical Association (BMA) have passed a motion denouncing the practice of homeopathy, saying taxpayers should not foot bills for remedies which have no scientific basis to support them. They demanded an end to all placements for trainee doctors who teach them homeopathic principles.
Dr Tom Dolphin, deputy chairman of the BMA's junior doctors committee in England told the conference: "Homeopathy is witchcraft. It is a disgrace that nestling between the
National Hospital for Neurology and Great Ormond Street in London there is a National Hospital for Homeopathy which is paid for by the NHS." The motion could become the official policy of the organisation if it is agreed upon by
their full conference next month. Latest figures show that 54,000 patients are treated each year at four NHS homeopathic hospitals in London, Glasgow, Bristol and Liverpool, at a cost of 4 million pounds. A fifth hospital in Tunbridge Wells in Kent was forced to close last year when local NHS funders stopped paying for treatments. The BMA had previously expressed scepticism about homeopathy, arguing that the rationing body - the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, should examine
the evidence base and make a definitive ruling about the use of homeopathic remedies in the NHS. Crystal Summer, chief executive of the British Homeopathic Association said attempts to stop the NHS funding alternative medicines ignored the views of the public, especially patients with chronic conditions. "Homeopathy helps thousands of people who are not helped by conventional care. We don't want it to be a substitute for mainstream care, but when people are thinking about making cuts to funding, I think they need to consider public satisfaction, and see that homeopathy has a place in medicine," she said. She said junior doctors' call for an end to any training placements based in homeopathic
hospitals ignored the lessons alternative medicine could provide in terms of how to diagnose patients. The alternative medicine, devised in the 18th century by German physician Samuel Hahnemann, is based on the theory that substances which cause symptoms in a healthy person can cure the same problems in a sick person when vastly diluted.
Proponents say the resulting remedy retains a "memory" of the original ingredient - a concept dismissed by scientists.

Homeopathy is unsupported by the collective weight of modern scientific research. The extreme dilutions used in homeopathic preparations usually leave none of the original material in the final product. The modern mechanism proposed by homeopaths, water memory, is considered implausible in that short-range order in water only persists for about 1 picosecond.^[95][96] Pharmacological effect without active ingredients is inconsistent with the observed dose-response relationships of conventional drugs,^[97] leaving only non-specific placebo effects^[10][98][99] or various novel explanations. The proposed rationale for these extreme dilutions – that the water contains the "memory" or "vibration" from the diluted ingredient – is counter to the laws of chemistry and physics, such as the law of mass action.^[95] The lack of convincing scientific evidence supporting its efficacy^[26] and its use of remedies without active ingredients have led to characterizations as pseudoscience and quackery,^{[27][29][30][100]} or, in the words of a 1998 medical review, "placebo therapy at best and quackery at worst."^[31] Use of homeopathy may delay or replace effective medical treatment, worsening outcomes or exposing the patients to increased risk.^{[6][8][12][101]}

Referring specifically to homeopathy, the British House of Commons Science and Technology Committee has stated:

In the Committee’s view, homeopathy is a placebo treatment and the Government should have a policy on prescribing placebos. The Government is reluctant to address the appropriateness and ethics of prescribing placebos to patients, which usually relies on some degree of patient deception. Prescribing of placebos is not consistent with informed patient choice-which the Government claims is very important-as it means patients do not have all the information needed to make choice meaningful.

Beyond ethical issues and the integrity of the doctor-patient relationship, prescribing pure placebos is bad medicine. Their effect is unreliable and unpredictable and cannot form the sole basis of any treatment on the NHS.^[14]