US-based doctor Kunal Saha, who was awarded a compensation of Rs 5.96 crore by the Supreme Court for medical negligence leading to the death of his wife, speaks with SHALINI SAKSENA about the inherent problem in the Indian medical regulatory system

Has the SC dismissed the petition filed by you seeking to cancel the license of three doctors?

It is not correct that SC dismissed my petition for cancellation of licence of the three doctors guilty of medical negligence causing my wife Anuradha SahaIt’s death. It was the Medical Council of India that had scrapped the licences of those doctors in 2011 in view of the SC verdict. However, the doctors moved court on the technical ground that the law under which MCI acted (Section 8.8 of MCI Code of Ethics & Regulations, 2002) was enacted in 2004 but Anuradha's case was decided in 2002. Therefore, this law could not be used retrospectively.

You are a doctor yourself. Can you talk about the loopholes in the system?

The inherent problem in the Indian medical regulatory system is that unlike in all other developed countries, including the US and the UK, both the MCI and State medical councils in India, the ultimate authority to adjudicate allegations of medical or ethical violations by doctors, comprise members who are doctors thereby creating an environment in which no doctor is willing to stand for truth or go against his errant medical colleagues. This creates a dangerous cocoon that provides an impregnable shield for all members of the medical community in India. The Government must try to answer this simple question — Why is there no non-doctor member in any medical council in India when every medical board elsewhere contains up to 50 per cent members from the non-doctor community? The onus is on the members of the medical fraternity to bring a change in this untenable situation and until that happens, unfortunate incidents of medical negligence will continue and the sagging standard of doctor-patient relationship will take a further dive.

Healthcare overhaul will take time? Any solution right away?

A complete overhaul of the medical regulatory system is necessary to bring a change in the deep-rooted rot in the medical system. A minimal requirement would be to make all medical councils completely transparent and honest bodies by permanently removing old and unscrupulous medical leaders running the show until now, backed by equally corrupt political parties.

While widespread corruption has riddled the healthcare delivery system for many decades, there are still many doctors in the country who are honest and maintain a high degree of moral values and integrity. Unfortunately, most of these good doctors have remained on the sideline as silent spectators. This must change.

The good doctors must step raise their voice to and throw the corrupt and immoral leaders out from medical councils and other medical groups like the Indian Medical Association. These doctors must be posted at the helm of the medical system to judge every complaint of medical negligence honestly without any favour to their delinquent medical colleagues so that all genuine cases of medical negligence can find justice. Then and only then, public trust on doctors can be restored and innocent lives saved from the wrath of unethical and errant medicos.