In a recent turn of events, Medical Council of India(MCI) has debarred 7 ghost doctors.3 of the punished doctors hail from telangana and 4 from Andhra Pradesh. The doctors had their names as teaching/hospital faculty at a private medical institute in Puducherry. But, it was identified that they were ghost doctors since 5 years only to gain monetary benefits.

MCI is initiating strict discipline to prevent ghost doctors, by commencing new rules and introduction of a technique to track their working hours called Radio Frequency Identification(RFID). The 7 accused doctors are suspended from practice for a period of 3 months and they are also banned for taking up a faculty job in any medical colleges across India for a period of 5 years. The MCI disciplinary committee has asked the state medical council of andhra pradesh (APSMC) to implement the punishment.

The following case was identified during the routine inspection by MCI to medical institutions. The accused doctors falsely claimed that they were working as a full time faculty members in the institute since 5 years. Upon conducting a hearing by MCI for the accused on five different occasions, the 7 doctors did not appeal to their cases. The doctors were identified guilty and punishment was implemented.

DR. K Ramesh Reddy, MCI member from Telangana who uncovered the racket stated that such unethical practices are a blot on medical profession. And he also informed about the notice issued to all medical medical colleges to introduce the RFID to track the movement of all faculty members. He reminded of the MCI act, that all medical colleges should recruit only full time faculty members or take a chance and get their admissions cancelled for 2 complete years.

Only the tip of the Iceberg has been exposed by MCI, the institutes and doctors also need to maintain professional ethics and abide by the law or else the time is not far, where they will be forced to adhere with penalties.

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