Legal Question in Health Care Law in India

Can one legally practice as a diabetologist after an Annamalai University / Apollo Medicity fellowship in diabetology?

QUESTION--Can an MBBS who has completed a fellowship program in diabetology offered by the Annamalai University / Apollo Medicity ) practice legally as a diabetologist?

ANSWER�

1--Since you want a legal answer, the answer is NO because this would be covered by regulation 7.20 of the Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002.

�7.20-- A Physician shall not claim to be specialist unless he has a special qualification in that branch.�

2�Please note that if a complaint against such a person is made to the Delhi Medical Council for violation of the above regulation, it would most likely uphold the complaint. The reason for saying so is that in an order, DMC held that ��since Respondent no. 1(the appellant herein) is not a holder of requisite postgraduate qualification of DM (Cardiology), he cannot claim himself to be a cardiologist per se�.

Knowing that there is a DM in endocrinology, the DMC might take a similar stand as regards diabetology.

3�However, this is a grey area and if such a case comes to me as a lawyer, I think I would be able to argue against the medical council decision. As a matter of fact, an appeal against the quoted DMC order was actually filed by me.

---M C Gupta

MBBS & MD (Medicine), AIIMS; MPH (San Carlos Univ.)

LL.B. (Delhi); LL.M. (Kurukshetra)

Post-Doctoral Fellow (United Nations Univ.)

Fellow: National Foundation of Clinical Forensic Medicine

Member, Indian Law Institute

Member, Supreme Court Bar Association

Awardee: National Citizen Award, 1991

Awardee: Annual Oration Award 2011, Indian Association of Medico-legal Experts

Ex-Additional Professor, AIIMS

Ex-Professor and Dean, NIHFW

Practicing advocate, (Delhi Bar Council no. 857/2001)

[email protected]

www.writing.com/authors/mcgupta44

24 May 2011

NOTE�More answers can be found in�

"Law For Doctors: 150 Questions answered" by Dr. MC Gupta & Dr. Namit Gupta (Aditya Medical Publishers, 2011)

www.medicalbookseller.com

sunil Talwar< [email protected]>