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THE working of the Indian Medical Association leaves much to be desired. Its attitude not only mocks at professional norms, but smacks of lack of social conscience. It is never short of alibis for not exerting itself to enforce the most stringent standards of conduct from its members. When grievances of patients over the various kinds of exactions by doctors and over bodily harm and even death caused by their negligence were brought within the purview of the Consumers Protection Act, the Association was a mute witness to the misguided howl of protest by doctors, instead of standing by the long-suffering patients. Recently, when the doctors of Tamil Nadu went on a strike over the condign and justified punishment of a heavy fine imposed on one of their fraternity by the Consumers Grievances Redressal Forum, the Association did not lift a little finger to discipline them. The State Government too set a very bad precedent by succumbing to their blackmail and paying up the fine from tax-payers' pocket. In future, every functionary duty bound to render prompt and efficient service who is punished by Consumer Forums for default or negligence will be able to palm it off vicariously on innocent citizens and tax-payers, thereby, frustrating the very purpose of the Consumers Protection Act.

There is no knowing to what extent the Association performs its watchdog function to control the excesses of its members brought to its notice, nor whether it takes any interest in the functioning of hospitals, nursing homes and primary health centres. A shocking fact to emerge in recent weeks is that out of about 20,000 or more diagnostic centres in the country, only 19 conform to imperative standards of correct and periodical calibration of equipment, essential qualifications of personnel and accuracy of results of tests and analysis. In the absence of any law regulating and licensing such centres, patients face the deadly prospect of becoming a prey to wrong medicines, wrong diagnosis and wrong treatment. When the President of the Medical Association was asked about this in a STAR News programme, he shrugged off his responsibility and coolly averred that the Association had taken no steps to ensure that the needed legislation was put in place, or to warn the public about bogus laboratories after getting some sample tests performed on its own initiative.

The association will do well, as an earnest of its accountability to the public and social commitment to patients, to publish every quarter information in all the media on the number of nature of complaints it had received from citizens, how many it has disposed of and to what effect. Just as in the case of some other public service organisations, the local office-bearers of the Association in district and State headquarters should hold quarterly adalats to hear grievances of patients and call the doctors to account.

B. S. Raghavan

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