HYDERABAD: A division bench of the Telangana High Court issued notices to the Centre, State government and the Medical Council of India (MCI) to file counter-affidavits in a PIL seeking to implement the provisions of the Indian Medical Council (Professional conduct, etiquette and ethics) Regulations, 2002 in its letter and spirit.
The PIL — filed by P Ramana Reddy, a retired government teacher from Nalgonda district — noted that as per Clause 1.5 of the Regulations, every doctor should prescribe drugs with generic names legibly, preferably in capital letters, and ensure their rational use. It also sought directions to the State Director of Medical Education and Director of Health Sciences to comply with the above regulations and publicise these to ensure that all medical doctors comply with it.
The bench, comprising of Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan and Justice B Vijaysen Reddy, passed its order recently in the PIL. The petitioner’s counsel, M Venkat Ram Reddy, submitted that the Indian Medical Council clearly states that any doctor violating Clause 1.5 would face disciplinary action by the concerned authority of the MCI.
The Directors of Medical Education and Health Sciences should forthwith act upon the letter written by the MCI in 2017, asking them to publicise the said clause in the interest of the people. Failure to implement the said provision would give people scope to buy wrong medicines. Additionally, physicians’ writing style confuses pharmacists, who end up giving wrong medicines to patients. The bench impleaded IMA a respondent and posted the matter to June 24.
Genuine problem The PIL — filed by
P Ramana Reddy, a retired government teacher from Nalgonda district — noted that as per Clause 1.5 of the Indian Medical Council Regulations, every doctor should prescribe drugs with generic names and and ensure their rational use