Despite the National Medical Commission (NMC) Decide in September last year that not only doctors, but patients can also appeal to Medical and Ethical Registration Board (EMRB) against the decisions of State medical tipsOn February 21, the EMRB rejected the appeal of a Punjab patient.
By the way, the EMRB is totally vacant since the mandate of all members came to an end last year, raising the question of who rejected the appeal.
As of September 2020, when the NMC was established, hundreds of patients’ appeals were rejected by saying that the NMC law allowed only doctors to appeal. This despite the fact that the right of patients to appeal is confirmed by a Supreme Court Order In 2002.
NMC is in a rumo, such a casual approach is shocking: activist
However, the minutes of the 16th NMC meeting held on September 29 last year, obtained through RTI in Jan declared: “NMC had agreed that all the appeals received by EMRB will be interwoven.” The minutes were approved in December.
In addition, in regards to the measures not taken by the state medical councils on complaints presented by non -doctors, even after the issuance of reminders by the meetings. It was decided to send a communication by EMRB to the state medical councils to complete the process in a limited way for the time. In the case of the failure by the SMC in terms of acting on the envelope, EMRB can take care of the issue of the SMC complaint and get rid of the same. EMRB will write this, and the Board will continue more accordingly. “
Gokul Chand attached From the Amritsar of Punjab presented an appeal dated January 30 against the decision of the Punjab Medical Council, in a case of alleged medical negligence that led to the death of his wife. He received a letter from NMC dated February 21 that rejected his appeal indicating that Emrb had decided in October 2021, that according to 2019 NMC Law“Only doctors or professionals should be allowed as appeals (sic) against EMRB.”
In March 2022, NMC had rejected the appeal of a Patient from Faridabad in Haryana. The EMRB letter that rejects the annex appeal seems to be a copy of the letter issued in March 2022 with only one change on the dates, the name of the recipient, etc.
“NMC seems to be in ruins. Who made the decision to reject an appeal when EMRB is vacant? It seems that the annex appeal was rejected by an official in the EMRB division that has just copied a previous letter. A casual approach is shocking, ”said Dr. KV Babu, Ophthalmologist and RTI activist who has been fighting since 2022 to obtain the right of patients to the restored appeal.