Arun Ram, TNN, Nov 20, 2010, 03.18am IST
CHENNAI: After more than two years of arguments at different forums over Indian Medical Association (IMA) endorsing two food products in violation of its own ethics and Medical Council of India (MCI) regulations, MCI decided to remove secretary and president of the IMA from the Indian medical register for six months.
As a result, these doctors cannot practise for six months. MCI has also decided to serve censure letters to all the 187 IMA executive committee members ''to not to repeat such practices in future''.
IMA represents two lakh doctors in the country. This is the first time in IMA's history that names of its office bearers would be removed from the register.
The decision was taken at an MCI ethics committee meeting on November 9. This was later ratified by the board of directors. Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad announced the MCI decision in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
In April 2008, IMA had signed a Rs 2.25-crore contract with Pepsico to allow Tropicana fruit juice and Quaker oats to use the IMA logo on their packs for three years ending 2011. Dr K V Babu, an IMA central committee member, complained to MCI on June 6, 2008 and followed it up with RTI applications that brought out details of this and other endorsements.
Azad's reply in the Lok Sabha set off hushed discussions in medical circles on Tuesday about which names would be removed from the Indian medical register: those of the office bearers at the time of signing the deal or the present ones.
[From http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/IMA-officials-penalized-for-endorsements/articleshow/6957876.cms#ixzz15qpmwJqX]
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