NEW DELHI: The Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) on Tuesday urged the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the Union Health Ministry to examine the model and frame national standards concerned with the commercialisation of door-to-door medical services through digital aggregators.
FAIMA also issued an urgent appeal to registered medical practitioners (RMPs) to exercise extreme caution before associating themselves with commercial door-to-door medical aggregator platforms, particularly where adequate clinical protocols, safety mechanisms, professional indemnity and clearly defined medico-legal responsibilities are absent.
The association said that medicine cannot be treated like food delivery, cab booking or another doorstep service where a doctor is dispatched through an application at the click of a button.
The largest body of resident doctors in India said a doctor's decision to undertake a home consultation must be based on clinical appropriateness, patient safety and professional judgment, rather than corporate targets, algorithms, incentives or commercial demand.
The association also expressed concern that doctors could be turned into a low-cost, on-demand workforce while digital intermediaries determine consultation pricing, availability and service conditions. It said a doctor's professional value cannot be reduced to the lowest price offered on an app.
The statement was signed by Dr Jaideep Kumar Choudhary, Chairman; Dr Swapnil Kendre, Co-Chairman; Dr Srinath Dubyala, President; Dr Atharv Shinde, Vice-President; Dr Dharmendra Singh, General Secretary; and Dr Hemant Sharma, National Secretary.
The association said a patient's residence cannot automatically be considered equivalent to a hospital, clinic or emergency facility, noting that certain clinical conditions require investigations, monitoring, trained support staff, emergency drugs, oxygen, resuscitation facilities and immediate referral capabilities.
It stressed that convenience must not override clinical safety and said years of medical education, residency, clinical training and professional responsibility deserve appropriate dignity and professional autonomy.
Seeking national standards for digitally aggregated home medical services, FAIMA said the framework should protect both patients and doctors and clearly define clinical eligibility, triage, documentation, consent, emergency referral, professional liability, data protection, doctor safety and the responsibilities of digital platforms.
FAIMA said it was not opposed to doctors visiting patients at home. Doctors have always provided home care when medically appropriate, particularly to elderly, bedridden, palliative-care and disabled patients, as well as others who genuinely require home-based medical care.
"Such care, when guided by clinical judgment and delivered with appropriate safeguards, remains an important part of compassionate medical practice," the association said. "Our concern is not the home visit. Our concern is the conversion of the doctor’s home visit into an on-demand commercial business model," it added.
FAIMA said it supported genuine and clinically appropriate home-based medical care and technology that strengthens doctor-patient care, but opposed models that reduce doctors to on-demand delivery personnel or compromise clinical judgment, patient safety and professional dignity.
It also called for accountability, regulation and safeguards before such commercial aggregator models expand, urging doctors to carefully reconsider participation until adequate mechanisms are established.