Be fair and open, NMC tells doctors in conduct review

livemint.com:

NEW DELHI : The National Medical Commission (NMC) has undertaken a detailed set of professional conduct reviews for medical professionals, advising them to have “fair and open" communication with patients. NMC said most complaints against doctors can be put down to communication gaps. In the case of alleged medical negligence, doctors have been advised to prepare proper documentation of all medical records of the patient.

Physicians have also been restricted from using titles such as ‘specialists’ if they don’t have a proper degree or skills. Dr Yogender Malik, a member of the ethics and medical registration board said, “We have reviewed real life case studies of patient-doctor relationship and issues pertaining to it, professional errors and their consequences. NMC has been hearing cases of misconduct and passing judgments and the need was felt to disseminate the learning from the complaints against doctors.

We have tried to collate valuable lessons to both the stakeholders, particularly medical practitioners. The aim is to create awareness, mitigate professional faults, safeguard patients from potential ethical lapses." For most patients it is difficult to distinguish between ethics, conduct and negligence. “Patients expect the same doctor to be available in the hospital 24x7, especially in a corporate set-up.

They don’t understand duty shifts of the doctors and a new problem is fixing responsibility when a patient is treated by a team of doctors. Patients think that a doctor may attend only for consultation and will not take the responsibility for the rest of the treatment protocol. So, we have tried to address all these issues," said Dr Malik.