IMA announces awards and action points on the occasion of Doctor's Day

IMA announces awards and action points on the occasion of Doctor's Day Importance should be accorded to family physicians and the nobility of the profession should be restored New Delhi, 03 July 2017: With this year's theme as 'My Family Doctor', the IMA celebrated Doctor's Day on 1 July 2017. Among other activities held on this day, the IMA announced awards under various categories, which would be presented during Centenary Celebrations of Medical Conferences in India on 23rd and 24th September 2017 at New Delhi. The Association announced Zero Tolerance to unethical practices by medical professionals and or medical establishments. These include Referral Fee, Cuts, and Commission received without involving any services. Offenders can get their names removed from the primary membership of IMA. There will be no tolerance for targets given to medical specialists joining hospitals. The IMA will soon come out with a standard appointment contract between consultant and corporate hospitals. Speaking about this, Padma Shri Awardee Dr K K Aggarwal, National President Indian Medical Association (IMA) and President Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) and Dr RN Tandon – Honorary Secretary General IMA in a joint statement, said, "This doctor's day is about celebrating and honoring the tradition of the family physician. Family physicians looked after all the health needs of a family, even many generations of a family, regardless of their specialization. They treated and provided preventive health care to a family as a whole because they were aware of the family history and served as a link between the patient and the specialist. The society should be educated on the benefits of getting treatment through a family doctor. Apart from this, IMA has also announced many other measures as part of this day." There should be a uniform code of medical ethics for medical establishments and doctors. The Association re-defines medical or surgical consent and that should include not only doctors or establishment’s competency to handle procedures but also the competency to handle complications how so ever rare they are. Adding further, Dr Aggarwal, said, "The IMA does not support criminal prosecution of doctors in clinical practice. It should be understood that doctors are not healing angels. The situation today is that doctors now are being prosecuted in various special acts for non-professional activities like not wearing apron, not displaying a defined board or not keeping a copy of PC PNDT Act. Doctors are also being prosecuted for minor violations of privacy, confidentiality of patient information and data and violations of minor clauses in surrogacy, IVF and HIV_AIDS acts. This is not acceptable to the medical profession." The Association opposes reduction of NPA in the 7thPay Commission. IMA will also intensify its public image through 'IMA Thank You' and 'Public Health Awareness Campaigns' using various advertisement modules. Apart from this, the IMA Accreditation and Academic Council will be operational from 15th July 2017. Dr K KKalra, ex CEO NABH, has joined IMA as CEO of the Council. The recipients of the IMA awards are as follows: Women Empowerment Award - Dr Jayshree B. Mehta and Dr Soumya Swaminathan (2016), Dr Rishma Pai (2017): Doctor of the Decade Award - Dr A Marthanda Pillai and Dr Shashank Joshi (2016), Dr Randeep Guleria (2017); Life Time Achievement Award - Dr Vinay Aggarwal (2016), Dr Ved Prakash Mishra (2017); Doctor of the Year Award - Dr R N Tandon, Dr Girish Tyagi, Dr R V Asokan, Dr Hrishikesh D Pai, and Dr K K Kalra (2016), Dr Shiv Kumar Mishra, Dr Bhupender Ahuja, Dr Saumitra Rawat, Dr H P Saraf, and Dr Mona Desai (2017), Dr Bharti Kashyap; Medical Eminent Teacher Award - Dr Georgi Abraham, Dr C G Bahuleyan, Dr M C Mishra, and Dr J A Jayalal (2016); and IMA Eminent Nurse Award - Ms Anita Deodhar and Ms Evelyn P Kannan