TGMC crackdown on quackery continues, over 400 FIRs filed

Hyderabad: The Telangana Medical Council has booked over 400 FIRs against the unqualified doctors and also took action against qualified doctors who had encouraged the quacks in the State during the last year. The TG Medical Council body has completed one year in office and took up several initiatives for the qualified professionals. The prominent steps include booking 400 FIRs against quacks who were illegally providing treatment to the people by prescribing allopathic medicines. The cases were booked under NMC Act 34, 54, and TSMPR Act 22.

Listing out the achievements during the last year, the Medical Council vice chairman, Dr G Srinivas said that they have got State of art building for doctors registrations which was appreciated by State health Secretary and NMC EMRB chairman. Issuing online renewals and good standing certificates without requiring in-person visits, saving doctors’ valuable time, is a significant achievement.

“We remember the earlier times when doctors had to stand in long queues, using stones to hold down papers with their names,” said Dr Srinivas. Dr Srinivas highlighted that the renewal and registration fees for doctors have been reduced by 50 per cent. For the first time in history, the NMC, in collaboration with TGMC, conducted a joint training and hands-on workshop for experts handling misconduct and appeal cases, involving professors from all government medical colleges in Hyderabad. Additionally, senior doctors above 65 years of age were honored with an exemption from renewal fees as a mark of respect.

Given accreditation to six scientific doctor associations like IMA Warangal, API, and ISA to conduct CPD programmes in district areas for half, one credit point is also according to NMC guidelines. They started a public awareness platform by regularly uploading in social media about raids on quacks and issued notice to around 40 qualified doctors who were encouraging quacks across the State. Ethics committee cases were also cleared which were pending in council from 2021. They started working in coordination with drug control authorities after TGMC raids and DCA also started filing cases that were illegally having or selling scheduled drugs.