Medical Council of India (MCI) was dissolved last month and replaced with a selected group of 7 members Board of Governors (BOG) headed by Dr. Vinod K. Paul allegedly to stop corruption and to pave the way for the proposed National Health Commission (NMC) Bill. But nothing really has changed since BOG has taken over the past several weeks except that MCI website has remained completely defunct denying ordinary citizens of vital healthcare information and the alleged corruption inside MCI has certainly been replaced by sheer anarchy at the expense of the countless victims of medical negligence. PBT has received complaints from victims whose complaints against the delinquent doctors (under section 8.7 and 8.8 of MCI Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002) were scheduled for hearing by the MCI Ethics Committee long before MCI was dissolved. These unfortunate victims never received any information from MCI or BOG that their pre-scheduled hearings were cancelled or postponed due to the evolving situation. Most of these innocent justice-seekers were kept completely in dark until they traveled to the MCI office in Delhi from all parts of India only to find closed doors. It is reported that even the handful of MCI employees who are still there are not working as only few members BOG only attending inside MCI.
We can appreciate the difficulty that the BOG may be facing during this transition period but nothing can be more important for the BOG members to inform the hapless victims who are compelled to travel long distance only in search of medical justice that they should not come to MCI office as their pre-scheduled hearings have been postponed/cancelled. PBT has written to the BOG chairman, Dr. Vinod K. Paul, seeking his immediate intervention to stop this outrageous situation and to compensate the victims who have already attended MCI office on the day of their pre-scheduled hearing. PBT encourages all victims and justice-seekers who have attended or will attend MCI to participate in the Ethics Committee hearings to contact PBT office with their grievances as PBT intends to bring a new public interest litigation (PIL) on this issue if BOG fails to take immediate and appropriate measures.
