NEW DELHI: An AIIMS professor, accused of 'stealing' fertilized eggs of a patient undergoing IVF treatment along with two other female patients, was let off with a mere warning by the National Medical Commission (NMC) last month overruling an order by the Delhi Medical Council which directed the suspension of the doctor’s licence to practice for a month.
The DMC order directs the temporary removal of the registration of practice medicine of Dr Neeta Singh, Professor, Obstetrics and Gynecology, for a month after it found her involved in an illegal and unethical act that also violates the guidelines by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR). The commission has instead asked the doctor to remain “more careful in the future.”
The latest order came after Singh appealed to the NMC against the DMC directions “in spite of the fact that the act in question was done in good faith to benefit the poor patients without accruing any personal gain,” said the NMC order issued last month.
“It cannot be denied that prevailing guidelines were violated. So, the doctor is warned to be more careful in the future,” said the NMC order. Singh is the wife of retired IAS officer Dr Dharmendra Singh Gangwar, who has served as additional secretary and financial advisor to the Union Health Ministry from 2019 to 2021.
DMC secretary Dr Girish Tyagi did not comment on the NMC order. However, he said that for the same offence, the medical licence of a private practitioner could have been revoked for six months to a year.
The incident was reported to the DMC in August 2017 while its order came in September last year.
According to the complaint, Singh has been accused of stealing 14 eggs of a patient, in connivance with an embryologist, and providing them to two of her patients without consent from the woman whose eggs were used. She is also accused of withholding the information from the two patients to whom she provided the eggs.
The DMC’s disciplinary committee that probed the incident found Singh’s conduct “illegal and unethical” and recommended a strict warning to her. The DMC, in its order issued in September 2022, modified the quantum of punishment to a suspension of her medical licence stating the “gravity of the lapse committed by Dr Neeta Singh, the punishment of warning will not serve the interest of justice.”
DMC directed suspension of AIIMS professor