State medical council registration mandatory for docs from outside practising in Bengal

Kolkata: Doctors with registrations from other states but currently practising in West Bengal will have to mandatorily get enrolled with the West Bengal Medical Council.

This will not only be applicable for the doctors associated with the state-run hospitals, but also for doctors linked with private hospitals, including those running private chambers.

“A detailed notification in this regard will be issued shortly. As a first step, all the private hospitals in the state have been asked to furnish a list of the medical practitioners associated with them,” said an office-bearer of the state medical council.

It is learnt that in the initial stage, the big corporate hospitals in the state have been asked to furnish the details of the list of doctors associated with the state medical council within the next 15 days.

The hospital authorities have also been asked to furnish the details of Aadhaar and PAN cards of the doctors attached to them,

The office-bearer said that this move is aimed at making the doctors with registrations from other states accountable to the council in the event of any medical negligence case involving them.

City-based oral and maxillofacial surgeon Srijon Mukherjee told IANS that this condition of mandatory enrollment with the state medical council for all doctors practising in the state was always there.

“The only thing is that it was never strictly implemented. Probably, the state medical council is now going to implement the same more strictly. Whatever it might be, enrolment of all doctors practising in West Bengal irrespective of their state of registration with the state medical council is absolutely necessary. I agree with the council that it will help in fixing accountability in the event of any complaint of medical negligence,” he said.