The National Convention on Medicine and Law (NCML) will take place in Mumbai on September 6, 2015. Mahendrakumar Bajpai, Advocate, Supreme Court of India and Director, Institute of Medicine and Law, talks about the benefits that the convention would offer to the participants, in a discussion with Sachin Jagdale
What are going to be the key highlights of National Convention on Medicine and Law?
This is the first non-government effort in India to bring all the stakeholders in the healthcare sector on a single platform to identify, discuss and deliberate on the legal issues affecting medicine. So on one hand, you will have the doctors, hospitals and medical associations and on the other hand, key government officials, regulatory authorities like Medical Council of India and legal professionals.
NCML will come out with solutions and recommendations on key legal issues that are a cause of concern to the healthcare providers while ensuring that patients’ safety, transparency or accountability that the law expects is not compromised in any way.
We understand that this convention will not be able to address all the important issues of concern, but at least it will be a beginning in the right direction, with the right intention and with the right plan of action.
The number of general practitioners is significant in the country. Have you tried to include their representatives as well in the convention?
Yes, in fact, the main sessions as well as the joint sessions will deliberate on issues that usually concern the general practitioners.
How significant will be the participation of the pharma industry in NCML?
The pharma industry has a very definite and important role to play in this convention as they are very closely involved with both the doctors and the patients. They can act as a bridge between the doctors and the patients and provide valuable help in narrowing the distrust between the two.
After the Supreme Court judgment granting compensation of Rs 11 crores in a case of medical negligence, doctors and hospitals are a worried lot. NCML is a platform where medicolegal issues will not only be identified and discussed but legally tenable solutions will also be evolved. These solutions and recommendations will be of much practical help to doctors in their day-to-day practice and assuage their anxiety. The pharma industry could take these issues, concerns, solutions and recommendations to both the healthcare seekers and providers.
Digital India campaign is expected to revolutionise the healthcare campaign in rural India. Will you be discussing this initiative at the convention?
We agree that use of digital technology will revolutionise the healthcare space and the greatest beneficiary would be the poorest citizens of this country needing medical service in the remotest parts of our country.
But this issue will not be on our agenda as the statutory guidelines on web consulting and tele consulting are being formulated by the Central Government.
Should cases of violence against doctors and hospitals be considered as an outcome of the sharp rise in cases of medical negligence?
Medical negligence is just the public face of this problem. The real culprits are the underlying factors like distrust between doctors and patients, a soft regulatory framework, unrealistically high expectations of patients, and the peculiar socio-economic character of the nation. NCML is a sincere endeavour to address these underlying factors in a participative and transparent manner.
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