Doctors face probe over extra tests

Govt move comes after expose on labs

The NDA government on Tuesday ordered a probe into allegations that doctors in Delhi were prescribing unnecessary diagnostic tests to patients in lieu of kickbacks from pathological laboratories and diagnostic centres, including the reputed ones.

The action follows a sting operation by a private news channel, which aired an expose on how doctors receive 30-50 per cent commission from diagnostic centres.

The maximum cut of 50 per cent is for expensive tests like Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), a medical imaging technique needed for diagnosis of complicated diseases.

The surreptitiously filmed conversation demonstrates the clear sense of ease with which a section of doctors collect commission on MRI, computed tomography (CT) scan, ultrasound checks and pathological tests. Commissions are apparently paid by cheques on monthly or weekly basis.

“Diagnostic centre staff revealed that they pay referring doctors as much as 50 per cent commission on expensive tests like MRI. This indicates that even after paying huge commission, these clinics turn a good profit,” said Health Minister Harsh Vardhan in the Lok Sabha.

Though doctors were not named in the sting operation, Vardhan said the Health Ministry would collect all the facts while investigating the extent to which this racket has pervaded Delhi.

The Health Secretary has been asked to conduct a probe and submit a report at the earliest. The Medical Council of India (MCI) has been directed to convene an emergency meeting of its ethics committee to take stock of the violations. The MCI has also been asked to put the minutes of the meeting on its website.

“I have written to the President of the MCI pointing out that the practice of accepting commissions is in clear violation of its Code of Ethics, 2002, under Regulations on professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics for registered medical practitioners,” said the health minister.

The Health Ministry is planning a panel of reputed medical practitioners and consumer law experts to suggest measures for greater transparency and accountability in medical practice. The extant civil laws governing medical negligence do not explicitly cover such practices, said Vardhan.

“It is felt that individuals indulging in such unethical conduct should be identified and disqualified from practising the noble profession,” observed the minister.

“Something needs to be done to stop corruption in the practice of medicine. There are kickbacks in over-investigation and unnecessary operations. These are completely unethical.

The MCI has the power to haul up doctors and strike them off the register,” Samiran Nundy, a former professor of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, told Deccan Herald.

The expose comes in the wake of several reports in the “British Medical Journal” and other academic publications, where eminent doctors including Nundy shared their experiences on commission and cut money in the Indian healthcare system, dominated by the private sector.

The doctors narrated how representatives of diagnostic centres visit doctors in small cities and towns with packets of cash for the patients they refer to those centres.

Even doctors in corporate hospitals face similar pressure from the management, who want more revenue from investigation and operations.

“Suffice it to say that most doctors with whom I have spoken agree that this state of affairs exists and Transparency International has concluded that the Indian healthcare sector is the second-most-corrupt organisation an ordinary citizen has to encounter (next to the police force),” wrote Nundy, who currently works at sir Ganga Ram Hospital in Delhi, in an editorial in the June 17 issue of the journal “Current Medicine Research and Practice”.