New Delhi: The National Medical Commission (NMC) in new ethics code released this month (August 2023) banned doctors and their families to accept freebies and gifts from pharmaceutical companies.
The new NMC ethics code comes more than a year after the Supreme Court of India expressed concern at freebies - including gold coins, fridges, LCD TVs, and funding international trips for vacations - offered by pharmaceutical companies to "manipulate" doctors' prescriptions and to recommend drugs produced by the firms.
“Registered Medical Practitioners (RMPs) and their families must not receive any gifts, travel facilities, hospitality, cash or monetary grants, consultancy fee or honorariums, or access to entertainment or recreation from pharmaceutical companies or their representatives, commercial healthcare establishments, medical device companies, or corporate hospitals under any pretext”, the NMC Ethics Code 2023 titled, “National Medical Commission Registered Medical Practitioner (Professional Conduct) Regulations, 2023” dated August 02, 2023.
“Also, the RMPs 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 or the allied health sector. RMP should be aware of the conflict-of-interest situations that may arise”, the NMC said.
“The nature of these relationships should be in the public domain such as clinical drug trials and should not be in contravention of any law, rule, or regulation in force. RMP himself or as part of any society, organization, association, trust, etc. make regarding the relationship with the pharmaceutical and allied health sector industry clear and transparent open to scrutiny”, it added.
The new NMC regulation however made certain exceptions.
“This (the new code of ethics) does not include salaries and benefits that RMPs may receive as employees of these organizations”, the NMC Professional Conduct Regulation 2023 said.
Warning the medical practitioners against professional misconduct, the NMC further said:
“Any violation of these Regulations, or other applicable Acts related to medical practice which are in force, shall constitute professional misconduct. By issuing these Regulations, the EMRB, NMC, and the State Medical Councils are in no way precluded from considering and dealing with any other form of professional misconduct by registered medical practitioners which do not fall under any of the categories mentioned in the regulations or guidelines or codes appended.”
“RMPs bound by these Regulations will not engage in any activities which violate these regulations and should not enter any employment or other contract that engages in activities in violation of any of these regulations. Conviction of RMP in cases of a cognizable offence involving moral turpitude may result in the suspension of license to practice”, the NMC said.
The latest NMC Regulations also explained a detailed guidelines about consultation by Telemedicine.
“Consultation through Telemedicine by the Registered Medical Practitioner shall be permissible following the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines”, the NMC said however cautioning the medical practitioners “to distinguish between telemedicine consultation and social media”.
“RMPs should avoid discussing the treatment of patients on public social media or prescribing medicine to patients on the public social media platform. If a patient approaches doctors through public social media, the doctor should guide the patient toward a telemedicine consultation or in-person consultation as the situation warrants”, the NMC Regulation on Telemedicine said.
Besides this the National Medical Commission rules also asked the RMPs using Telemedicine to uphold the same professional and ethical norms and standards as are applicable in routine in-person consultations within the intrinsic limitations of telemedicine.
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