CURRENT AFFAIRS
Ø National Medical Commission’s new guidelines
These are some of the guidelines for the professional conduct of registered doctors of modern medicine recently notified by the ethics and medical registration board under the country’s apex regulator National Medical Commission (NMC).
About the guidelines:
· On commissions:
o The guidelines warn against receiving commissions from pharmacies or diagnostic laboratories or attending conferences sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
· On birth control and abortions:
o The comprehensive guidelines specifically mention that no doctor can deny birth control measures or abortions based on religious beliefs.
· On social media:
o The document for the first time provides an 11-point guideline on doctors using social media.
o It says that doctors may provide information or make announcements online, but the information should be verifiable and not mislead people.
o The doctors have been asked not to discuss the specifics of the treatment of their patients or post their scans online.
o The guideline also forbids doctors from purchasing likes, followers, or any fees to boost their profile on search algorithms.
o Doctors should not participate in telemedicine platforms that provide ratings, reviews, and promotions of certain doctors by any means.
o It adds that the educative material that doctors put out on social media must relate to their own field of expertise.
o Doctors have also been asked to follow decorum when interacting online or speaking about their colleagues.
· On prescriptions and treatments
o Doctors have been asked to write prescriptions in legible, capital letters.
o They have been asked to prescribe only generic medicines, except for cases where medicines have a narrow therapeutic index and other exceptional cases.
§ Therapeutic index means drugs where a small difference in dosage may lead to adverse outcomes.
o The guidelines also urge judicious use of fixed-dose combinations, with doctors being asked to prescribe only the approved, rational combinations.
o They further ask doctors to educate people on generics being equivalent to branded medicines, urge pharmacies to stock them, and encourage people to purchase drugs from Jan AushadhiKendras and other generic drug outlets.
o The telemedicine guidelines also list the type of drugs by the type of consultation provided.
· Doctor’s right to refuse treatment:
o The guidelines give doctors the right to refuse treatment when patients or their family members are abusive, unruly, or violent.
o The doctors have also been given the right to refuse treatment if the patient cannot pay them.
o The guidelines forbid doctors from refusing treatment, however, in cases of medical emergencies.
o They have been asked not to discriminate based on gender, race, religion, caste, social, economic or cultural grounds.
· Continuous Professional Development (CPD)
o For the first time, the regulator has made it mandatory for doctors to continue to learn throughout their active years.
o The guidelines say that doctors should have studied 30 credit points in their relevant fields at the time of renewal of their license every five years.
o Even professors at medical college hospitals have to undergo such training despite staying in touch with academics.
o There are guidelines for institutes that can provide these continuous training courses, which again have to be registered with NMC.
· Doctors participating in conferences
o While the guidelines make it mandatory for doctors to undergo CPD, they say that none of these educational sessions or conferences can be sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry.
o So if a doctor speaks at a symposium sponsored by the pharma companies, the doctor becomes liable.
o Doctors should not be involved in any third-party educational activity like CPD, seminar, workshop, symposia, conference, etc which involves direct or indirect sponsorships from pharmaceutical companies
o The guidelines say doctors or their families should not receive any gifts, travel facilities, hospitality, cash or monetary grants, consultancy fee or honorariums, or access to entertainment or recreation from pharmaceutical companies under any pretext.
o This restriction does not apply to the salaries of doctors working for such companies.
About National Medical Commission · National Medical Commission (NMC) is a regulatory body which regulates medical education and medical professionals. · It replaced the Medical Council of India in 2020. · The Commission: o grants recognition of medical qualifications, o gives accreditation to medical schools, o grants registration to medical practitioners, o monitors medical practice and o assesses the medical infrastructure in India. |
Ø
PC import curbs
Recently, the government restricted the import of laptops, tablets, all-in-one personal computers, ultra-small form factor computers and servers.
Key details:
· The import of these products would be allowed against a valid licence for restricted imports.
· Import of all items categorised under the Harmonised System of Nomenclature (HSN) 8471, that is, automated data processing machines and units, would be restricted.
· A valid licence would be required to import them for sale to consumers.
· Exemption to licensing requirements would be extended in four circumstances.
o First, purchasing a single unit of the mentioned products on an e-commerce website that are being brought into the country through post or courier.
§ It would only draw relevant duties.
o This also applies to (reimport of) products meant for repair and return.
o Permission has been given to import up to 20 such items in a consignment for purposes entailing research and development, testing, benchmarking and evaluation, repair and re-export or product development purposes.
o Following their intended use, the products would either have to be destroyed beyond use or re-exported.
o Items may be imported if they serve as an essential part of an entity’s capital good.
Need of the move:
· The key objectives are:
o to reduce the dependence on imports,
o ensure the country has access to trusted hardware and systems and
o increase domestic manufacturing of products.
§ On domestic manufacturing, the government had introduced the production-linked incentive (PLI) Scheme 2.0 for IT hardware.
Status of domestic production:
· Domestic production of electronic goods increased to $87.1 billion in 2021-22 from $49 billion in 2016-17, registering a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 15%.
· The country’s imports with respect to the products in discussion stood at approximately $10.1 billion in FY 2022-23, about 13% lower on a year-over-year basis.
· The demand for laptops and tablets were being largely met through imports.
Way forward:
· Concerns mostly revolve around accessibility to stocks and a potential impact on prices.
· Global companies operating in India have sought that the implementation be deferred by 9-12 months to enable them time to ramp up domestic production and understand the licensing process.
· For the longer term, vendors would be able to arrange for the required licences.
· Customers will advance their purchases anticipating price increase going forward.