MCI suspends registrations of 15 doctors in Madhya Pradesh

Registrations of 15 doctors in Madhya Pradesh have been suspended for six months by Medical Council of India (MCI) after they went for foreign jaunts allegedly sponsored by a private pharmaceutical company.
Besides, the MCI has also asked the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to warn the erring companies and take proper steps against them.
According to documents available with PTI, after an MCI investigation found that these doctors had violated its ethical regulations and committed misconduct, it suspended their registration to practise for six months.
The MCI suspended the registration of city-based doctors Shashikant Rege, Vinod Nadkarni, Virshali Nadkarni, Dhanraj Panjwani, Rajesh Muley, Swati Muley, Atul Kumar Tapadiya and Jaishree Tapadiya and Gwalior-based Atul Sahay, Shweta Sahay as well as Narottam Vaishya, Jabalpur-based Harsh Saxena, Prachi Saxena as well as Alok Agrawal, besides Ujjain based Mahendra Singh Chouhan, according to the documents.

The MCI probe found that tickets were booked for Panjwani and three members of his family to the United Kingdom (UK), though they Panjwanis dropped their visit plan at the eleventh hour.
During the probe, Panjawani failed to disclose who incurred the expenses on his cancelled air tickets, the documents stated.

Meanwhile, non-governmental organisation (NGO) Swasthya Adhikar Manch's activist Amulya Nidhi told reporters here that Ahmedabad-based pharmaceutical company Intas Pharma had made arrangements and paid bills of visits of the 15 doctors to the United Kingdom.
He said his organisation had complained to the MCI that the pharma company had sponsored these visits between May 24 and May 30, 2012.

Nidhi alleged, "To push up sales, pharma companies lure doctors and sponsor their foreign junkets," adding that a stern law should be introduced to stop this unethical practice.
However, all attempts to contact Intas Pharma's corporate office over the phone failed.