Dr TAJUDDIN K of Kasturba Medical College Hospital is the New President of the Association of Medical Consultants (AMC)-Mangaluru Chapter for 2022-23
Mangaluru: During the Annual General Body (AGM) of the association of Medical Consultants (AMC)-Mangaluru Chapter the new office bearers of AMC were announced, where Dr TAJUDDIN -the new President; Dr Vatsala Kamath-Vice President; Dr GG Laxman Prabhu- President-Elect; Dr Ashfaque Mohammed-Secretary; Dr Janardhan Aithala- Treasurer and Dr Anand Bangera-Joint Secretary. Dr Sachidananda Rai and Dr Siddharth Shetty will continue as Ex-Officio Members and Dr Sathish Bhat as Medical Legal Cell chairperson.
Welcome address was delivered by 2021-22 President Dr Sachidananda Rai, followed by secretaries report by Dr Siddharth M Shetty. Following the treasurer’s report by Dr Prakash Harishchandra, the Association monthly bulletin AMICUS was released , with Dr Nandakishore at the helm, and Dr GG Laxman Prabhu, being its editor.
The Four points of discussion during the AGM was :
1)To join the legal fight against the KPMEA and its funding.
2) Issues faced by members with respect to H&A of AMC-Mumbai
3) NMC new draft regulations
4) Any other points raised by members with permission of chair.
Following the announcement of the new Team of AMC 2022-23 , it was time to hand-over the executive to the new team. In his acceptance speech, Dr Tajuddin said, “Members participation is very important for the success of our Association, since we have seen a very low turnout during the meeting, even though our strength is 520 plus. I will try to convince and motivate our members for their active involvement to make our association reach greater heights. The public also needs to cooperate with the doctors if they face any issues by discussing with the concerned doctors of hospital management, rather than get into an argument or violence, which we have experienced in the past. Hoping that we will have a great year I remain to thank you all and seek your support in carrying out my duties as the president”.
Following the vote of thanks by elct Secretary Dr Ashfaque Mohammed, the chief guest of the occasion Dr Rajeev Joshi MBBS MD LLB, was introduced by Dr Sathish Bhat , the medical legal cell chairperson. Dr Rajeev Joshi addressing the gathering highlighted on ” Knowledge is power : Argue your own case in Court”, and on MOOT Court, including formation of Medicos Legal Aid Association. Giving an example Dr Rajeev said, ” The recent unfortunate episode of the suspension of Dr. Trinyan Mili to show that the administration is not at fault has raised several questions. We unanimously took suo-moto action of drafting and redrafting a letter to PMO and raised protest regarding “quick actions” against doctors. Surprisingly it was followed by a request from the victim to withdraw the grievance filed by us.
“Our internal rumination regarding how we as an association should respond to such events has been a learning curve for all of us. Some said that we should NOT withdraw the letter, while some were anxious about further victimization of the victim. Some had forewarned about the need for consent while some felt that no government servant will give consent for any such initiative. I wrote to Dr Mili that our action was in public interest, and he can always say that he never gave consent, in fact opposed the action.
“I recall the day in 1987 when all admissions in BJMedical College were stayed because the son of the Dean of B J Medical College filed a writ petition in Bombay High Court claiming a seat in BJ. He was not eligible as per the Supreme Court Judgment in the well known Pradeep Jain case. Had the Dean’s son been given admission, it would have opened the door of B J medical to all students out of Pune Jurisdiction. Many students from B J would have lost their seats. So 8-10 students of BJ Medical rang the bell at my home at 10:30 at night. This entire story is available on my blog shahandkatshah@blogspot.com“
“I had known the high court and supreme court judgments in relation to admission as my own admission to M D Paediatrics course in 1984 was through court. I had helped more than 50 students to get seats of their choice as per their merit in 3 years after my admission. I did not need even 5 minutes to realize that the writ petition was utterly bogus. The son of the Dean had no eligibility for a seat in B J Medical college. I called my advocate friend at 11 pm at night and we decided to meet at 5:45 am at the railway station so that we could travel to Mumbai for intervention in the case in the high court”.
“We all reached B.J. Medical common room at 12 midnight and prepared a list of applicants for M D Paediatrics to find directly affected candidates as per advice of the lawyer. We realized that a student from a lower middle class family would have lost the seat had the Dean’s Son been admitted. Everyone said that they will contribute for the intervention application / writ petition and one student started collecting funds. Contribution was decided to be Rs. 50 per head at the time when a cup of tea used to cost 50 paise”.
“However, an important thing was the possibility of the student being victimized AFTER admission. Most felt that whether he gets MD or DCH, the head of Paediatrics would not let him live peacefully. It was hotly debated whether the student should stick his neck out. The student however showed courage to fight for his legal rights. As a result of our intervention ALL students in B.J. were admitted as per their merits, and the writ petition of the Dean’s son was kept pending for final hearing. During the next hearing the Dean’s advocate informed the court that a seat has become vacant, and there are no other claimants, and the college is willing to give the seat, if the petitioner withdraws the petition. Hence the petition was withdrawn”.
“The Son’s Advocate informed the University that the Court directed that the petitioner be admitted to MD Paediatrics course..!! It was clear to me that there were at least 5 students in the waiting list. The Dean’s son was preferred over all of them by secretly creating illegal extra seats. Nobody was willing to move court because ALL felt that they would be victimized by the head of Paediatrics because the admission was given with her consent. I therefore wrote to the Chief Justice that an admission was illegally given under the nose of court, using court for backdoor entry. The Chief Justice kindly permitted me to file a petition in the matter, which I had done through my advocate friend”.
“My friends from B J Medical supported me. Medicos Legal Aid Association was formed for filing the public interest litigation to cancel admission of Dean Son. It was necessary to stop the increase in seats, every time someone went to court for his legitimate claim. Some members of the resident doctors association opposed the formation of such an association, but I persisted with all the pressures. A Judge sitting in the division bench started threatening my advocate that my MBBS MD degree would be cancelled as I was doing trade union type of activity”.
“The Government lawyer said that I was publishing comments in the media, and I was not interested in medical practice. Government alleged that I was involved in the theft of a child from Sassoon Hospital, on which my lawyer said that the government is free to file a case in criminal court, but the high court is not the place for such allegations. The judge threatened to cancel my registration with Maharashtra medical council, my MBBS degree, my MD degree, everything. The State government filed a contempt petition against me saying that in spite of a warning by a Judge that my MBBS degree would be cancelled, I threatened the head of paediatrics department. I asked the lawyer to withdraw his vakalatnama and decided to argue the case in court. Details of this case are in the attached ppt which I am presenting at Mangalore on Sunday. In fact it is going to be a Moot Court event, and I hope participants enjoy it”.
“All were afraid of possible atrocities then and this is what we all are afraid of today even after 35 years. Victimization, oppression by superiors, and some action by the government on whistleblowers is what we all are afraid of. It is high time we get rid of such fears. If we unite as an association; nobody, repeat nobody, can do anything against us”.
“I have learnt one thing in life, if you want to travel by train you should be at the station at least 10 minutes before the scheduled departure. The train may be late, but if you are late, the train will leave you at the station no matter who you are and how big you are. I also know that if you want to reach your destination earlier, you have to travel by air for which you need to be at the airport two hours earlier for a security check. I want a medicos legal aid association waiting, well in advance for quick action on events which put doctors’ morale, life and career in jeopardy. For this we will have to pack our bags properly with knowledge AND resolve that we shall act, no matter what”.
“I want all members to resolve that we will support doctors. I know that patients do suffer if doctors do wrong; but many patients suffer if administration does something wrong with doctors. One wrong action of those in power will affect the psyche of hundreds of doctors. We will not support wrong actions of individual doctors, we will certainly work to reduce the impact of such incidents on the medical community in particular and population at large. Believe me, I have received very positive messages from Dr Trinyam Mili, but I have been requested not to share the message with all members of the association”.
“I request the doctors to join our Medicos Legal Aid association. We are on board for a great journey, like I was on board a flight from Pune to Mangaluru, which landed safely” concluded Dr Rajeev.
ABOUT DR RAJEEV JOSHI :
Dr. Rajeev Joshi, MBBS MD Paediatrics, LLB IS Past President, IAMI (Indian Association for Medical Informatics); A Health Data Interoperability Professional Certified by HL7 and SNOMED-CT International (2017); Fellowship in Biomedical Informatics (2008), MBL, National Library of Medicine (USA); Chairman, eCommunication Cell, Indian Medical Association, Pune (April 2016-Mar 2019); Computer Applications in Medical Profession take My Care Pvt Ltd,- Pune; Adjunct Professor, Biomedical Engineering, Dept of Instrumentation, COEP (July 2016-May 2017); Founder Professor, Dept of Health Information and Technology, MUHS (Feb 2015- Feb 2016); Trained at Duncan Guthrie Institute of Medical Genetics, Yorkhill, Glasgow (1991); Trained at Interdisciplinary School of Scientific Computing, SPPU, Pune (2010)
