More than two years ago, medical field in West Bengal and across India was rattled with the news that Dr. Nirmal Maji, president of West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC), orchestrated to have hemodialysis of his pet dog done at SSKM Hospital, top super-specialty tertiary care hospital for human patients in Kolkata (see below). The brazenly unscientific idea of using a dialysis machine on a dog that is regularly used for humans is not only reckless and unethical, it may also pose serious threats to the human patients because of possibility of spread of infection and even more dangerously, chance of transmission of a new virus or other microbial diseases of animals (“zoonotic diseases”) to the innocent humans. Although a registered physician from West Bengal, Dr. Maji is also an MLA of the ruling Trinomul-Congress party, top IMA leader from Kolkata and head of the state medical council that has the ultimate duty to protect patients from medical negligence and unethical activities by Bengal doctors.
PBT filed a formal complaint in 2015 with the WBMC against Dr. Maji for his blatantly unethical and dangerous attempt to perform dialysis of his pet dog in a government hospitals for humans. More than two years have passed and media uproar against Dr. Maji have subsided, WBMC has remained absolutely silent and refused to investigate or take any action against their president even though MCI Code of Ethics & Regulations, 2002 has clearly stipulated that complaints against doctors must be decided within a period of 6 months. Now, PBT has lodged an appeal (under section 8.7 of MCI Codes) with MCI today urging the central medical council to investigate and take immediate disciplinary action against the present WBMC president. Nobody is above the law – we hope that MCI will rise to the occasion and take quick and exemplary disciplinary action against Dr. Maji.
India Today (June 14, 2015) Dog dialysis-Maji
