14 January,2011 08:10 AM IST | | Alifiya Khan
New circular issued by medical council says doctors will have to earn credit hours for renewal of licence
Doctors in the state are suddenly scurrying to attend seminars and medical conferences, which until a few days ago hardly saw any attendance.
The reason is a circular from the Maharashtra Medical Council stating that their licences will not be renewed henceforth unless they show proof of having updated their skills.
This can be done by medical conferences and workshops at recognised institutions or publication of medical books or chapters and articles in medical journals.
The circular states that a doctor has to earn 30 credit hours in five years. While publishing a book earns him 16 credit hours, publishing a paper gets him 14 credit hours.
However, these tasks are time consuming and need extensive work said doctors, so the easier way out is to be a guest speaker at conferences and earn four credit hours per session or simply mark attendance and earn two credit hours per event.
A doctor has to renew his licence every five years and, henceforth, those not having the credit hours would not be eligible for renewal. Those practising without valid licences are considered quacks.
City doctors have welcomed the move to introduce credit-based system for licence-renewal and said that it has created quite a ripple in the medical fraternity.
"Earlier when we used to organise medical education workshops, barely 50 people used to turn up. Now we are getting requests from nearly 500 doctors to be a part of each workshop. Suddenly everybody have realised the need to update their skills and learning. I think the circular was long due and is a great initiative; we wanted it to come in to effect long ago," said Dr Sharad Agharkhedkar, president of Indian Medical Association, Pune branch.
Not only the doctors, but also the institutions have to be accredited.
Dr Nitin Jhankar, president of General Practitioners Association, said: "Before organising a conference, we will now have to apply for accreditation and based on merit and proven track records, the agency would get approval. So just merely going to a workshop organised by any professional body won't do, it would have to be an accredited one."
Dr Agharkhedkar also added that since the circular, enquiries for membership had also gone up.
"Of the 7,500-odd doctors, about 2,750 are registered with the IMA. But since the circular, enquiries for membership has also gone up," he said.
