NMC puts on hold its regulations mandating doctors to prescribe generic drugs
bar them from endorsing any drug brand
New Delhi, Aug 24: The National Medical Commission (NMC) on Thursday put on hold the regulations that make it mandatory for doctors to prescribe generic drugs and bar them from accepting gifts from pharma companies or endorsing any drug brands.
The Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, were published on August 2.
However, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA) had expressed concern over the NMC making it mandatory to prescribe generic medicines saying this was not feasible because of the uncertainty about their quality.
They also suggested that registered medical practitioners should be allowed to attend conferences sponsored by pharmaceutical companies or the allied health sector.
They said the regulation barring doctors from attending conferences sponsored by pharma companies warrants reconsideration and also demanded that associations and organisations should be exempted from the purview of NMC guidelines.
Members of the IMA and IPA had met Mansukh Mandaviya on Monday and expressed their concerns over the regulations.
The NMC in its 'Regulations relating to Professional Conduct of Registered Medical Practitioners" stated that all doctors must prescribe generic drugs, failing which they will be penalised and even their licence to practice may also be suspended for a period.
It also asked doctors to avoid prescribing branded generic drugs.
In a notification issued on Thursday, the NMC said, "... That National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, are hereby held in abeyance with immediate effect.
"That for removal of doubts, it is clarified that the National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023, shall not be operative and effective till further Gazette Notification on the subject by the National Medical Commission."
The commission also said that it adopts and makes effective with immediate effect the "Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002", as if the same have been made by the commission by virtue of the powers vested under the National Medical Commission Act, 2019.
"That for removal of doubts, it is clarified that Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002, shall come into force with immediate effect," the notification by NMC said.
According to the regulations, registered medical practitioners and their families "must not receive any gifts, travel facilities, hospitality, cash or monetary grants, consultancy fee or honorariums, or access to entertainment or recreation from pharmaceutical companies or their representatives, commercial healthcare establishments, medical device companies, or corporate hospitals under any pretext".
However, this does not include salaries and benefits that registered medical practitioners may receive as employees of these organizations, the regulations stated.
Also, these practitioners should not be involved in any third-party educational activity like CPD, seminar, workshop, symposia, conference, etc., which involves direct or indirect sponsorships from pharmaceutical companies or the allied health sector.
A registered medical practitioner "individually or as part of an organization/ association shall not give to any person or to any companies or to any products or to software/platforms, whether for compensation or otherwise, any approval, recommendation, endorsement... concerning any drug brand, medicine, nostrum remedy, surgical, or therapeutic article, apparatus or appliance or any commercial product or article with respect of any property, quality or use thereof or any test, demonstration or trial thereof, for use in connection with his name, signature, or photograph in any form or manner of advertising through any mode nor shall he boast of cases, operations, cures or remedies...", the regulations said.
The practitioners who attend to the patient will be fully accountable for his actions and entitled to the appropriate fees.
"In case of abusive, unruly, and violent patients or relatives, the registered medical practitioners can document and report the behaviour and refuse to treat the patient. Such patients should be referred for further treatment elsewhere," the regulations said.
It also specified that use of alcohol or other intoxicants during duty or off duty which can affect professional practice will be considered as misconduct.
Also, for the first time, the term emergency has been defined as 'life and limb saving procedure. Previously, the term emergency was not clearly defined.
According to the regulations, any request for medical records to a registered medical practitioner responsible for patient records in a hospital either by the patients or authorized attendant has to be duly acknowledged and documents has to be supplied within 5 working days instead of the existing provision of 72 days.
In case of medical emergencies, efforts should be made to make the medical records available at the earliest.
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Actress sexual assault: Court says Prosecution 'miserably' failed to prove conspiracy against Dileep
Kochi (PTI): The prosecution had "miserably" failed to prove the conspiracy charge against Dileep in the sensational 2017 actress sexual assault case, a local court has observed while citing inconsistencies and lack of sufficient evidence against the Malayalam star.
The full judgement of Ernakulam District and Principal Sessions Court Judge Honey M Varghese was released late on Friday, and has revealed the judge also pointing out at unsustainable arguments put forth by the prosecution.
"The prosecution miserably failed to prove the conspiracy between accused No.1 (Pulsar Suni) and accused No.8 (Dileep) in executing the offence against the victim," the court held.
It examined in detail, the prosecution's allegation that Dileep had hired the prime accused to sexually assault the survivor and record visuals, including close-up footage of a gold ring she was wearing, to establish her identity.
On page 1130 of the judgment, under paragraph 703, the court framed the issue as whether the prosecution's contention that NS Sunil (Pulsar Suni) recorded visuals of the gold ring worn by the victim at the time of the occurrence, so as to clearly disclose her identity, was sustainable.
The prosecution contended Dileep and Suni had planned the recording so that the actress' identity would be unmistakable, with the video of the gold ring intended to convince Dileep that the visuals were genuine.
However, the court noted that this contention was not stated in the first charge sheet and was introduced only in the second one.
As part of this claim, a gold ring was seized after the victim produced it before the police.
The court observed that multiple statements of the victim were recorded from February 18, 2017, following the incident, and that she first raised allegations against Dileep only on June 3, 2017.
Even on that day, nothing was mentioned about filming of the ring as claimed by the prosecution, the court said.
The prosecution failed to explain why the victim did not disclose this fact at the earliest available opportunities.
It further noted that although the victim had viewed the sexual assault visuals twice, she did not mention any specific recording of the gold ring on those occasions, which remained unexplained.
The court also examined the approvers' statements.
One approver told the magistrate that Dileep had instructed Pulsar Suni to record the victim's wedding ring.
The court observed that no such wedding ring was available with her at that time.
During the trial, the approver changed his version, the court said.
The Special Public Prosecutor put a leading question to the approver on whether Dileep had instructed the recording of the ring, after which he deposed that the instruction was to record it to prove the victim's identity.
The court observed that the approver changed his account to corroborate the victim's evidence.
When the same question was put to another approver, he repeated the claim during the trial but admitted he had never stated this fact before the investigating officer.
The court noted that the second approver even went to the extent of claiming Dileep had instructed the execution of the crime as the victim's engagement was over.
This showed that the evidence of the second approver regarding the shooting of the ring was untrue, as her engagement had taken place after the crime.
The court further observed that the visuals themselves clearly revealed the victim's identity and that there was no need to capture images of the ring to establish identity.
In paragraph 887, the court examined the alleged motive behind the crime and noted that in the first charge sheet, the prosecution had claimed that accused persons 1 to 6 had kidnapped the victim with the common intention of capturing nude visuals to extort money by threatening to circulate them and there was no mention about Dileep's role in it.
The court also rejected the prosecution's claim that the accused had been planning the assault on Dileep's instructions since 2013, noting that the allegation was not supported by reliable evidence.
It similarly ruled out the claim that Suni attempted to sexually assault the victim in Goa in January 2017, stating that witness statements showed no such misconduct when he served as the driver of the vehicle used by the actress there.
The court also discussed various controversies that followed Dileep's arrest and the evidence relied upon by the prosecution, ultimately finding that the case had not been proved.
Pronouning its verdict on the sensational case on December 8, the court acquitted Dileep and three others.
Later, the court sentenced six accused, including the prime accused Suni, to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment.
The assault on the multilingual actress, after the accused allegedly forced their way into her car and held it under their control for two hours on February 17, 2017, had shocked Kerala.
Pulsar Suni sexually assaulted the actress and video recorded the act with the help of the other convicted persons in the moving car.
