Patients still without right to appeal state med panel decisions | India News

The National Medical Commission has not made a provision for patients to appeal against decisions of state medical councils in the new professional conduct regulations. The health ministry too hasn’t yet placed before Parliament a bill to amend the NMC Act 2019 to give patients this right, though the draft amendment has been ready since December last year. As the law currently stands, only doctors have a right to appeal against a state council’s decision on complaints of medical negligence or professional misconduct.

In the absence of a provision giving patients’ the right to appeal, in just seven months (March to September 2022) the NMC rejected 65 appeals from patients citing “their non-maintainability under section 30(3) of the NMC Act”. This information was revealed on December 6, 2022 in response to an RTI application seeking data on the number of appeals of non-doctors rejected by the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB).
Section 30(3) states that a medical practitioner or professional who is aggrieved by any action taken by a State Medical Council can file an appeal to the Ethics and Medical Registration Board (EMRB) of the NMC against such action, and that the decision of the EMRB would be binding on the state council. Since the section only mentions medical practitioner, the NMC has been rejecting the appeals of all non-doctors.

The health ministry issued a notice On December 29, 222 on the introduction of the National Medical Commission (Amendment) Bill 2022. In the draft of the amendment bill put in the public domain seeking suggestions and comments from the public, there was an inclusion “to provide provision for patients/their relatives/complainant to prefer appeal in the Ethics and Medical Registration Board/National Medical Commission against the decision/action of State Medical Council in complaints related to medical negligence/professional misconduct”. However, in response to an RTI query on this, the health ministry responded on July 4 this year that the bill was yet to be finalised.
The Indian Medical Council Act 1956, under which the erstwhile Medical Council of India functioned, also initially allowed only medical practitioners the right to appeal. However, following a 2003 order of the Supreme Court in a writ petition filed in 2000, section 8.8 was added to the Code of Conduct Regulations 2002. Section 8.8 stated that “any person aggrieved by the decision of the State Medical Council” on any complaint against a delinquent physician, shall have the right to file an appeal to the MCI within a period of 60 days from the date of receipt of the order passed by the medical council
“It is almost three years since the NMC was constituted in September 2020. Neither the NMC nor the ministry seem to feel any urgency to incorporate the provisions for patients’ right to appeal,” said Dr KV Babu, ophthalmologist and RTI activist from Kerala whose RTI queries revealed that the NMC has been rejecting patients’ appeals.