Srinagar: Six months after its dissolution, J&K Government said the State Medical Council will be reconstituted tomorrow and start functioning immediately to monitor and mentor the medical practice in the UT.
Additional Chief Secretary J&K Government, (Health and Medical Education Department) Vivek Bhardwaj said the file for the J&K Medical Council was being vetted by the Law Department of the UT and the order would be issued “in a day or two”.
He said the Medical Council was a long pending issue and its non-existence was proving detrimental to the tenet of quality medical education and healthcare delivery in the UT. “It took a little while but now the process is over,” he said.
He said the J&K MC being defunct was also affecting masses and the Government was cognizant of that.
The previous Chairman of J&K Medical Council Dr Saleem ur Rehman completed three years of his tenure in April this year. The Council has been defunct since then. The Council is mandated to register medical professionals, issue certificates of registration, vet the qualifications and degrees, promote and certify continuous medical education, verify credentials claimed by professionals and issue certificates of Good Standing. In addition, the Council is expected to investigate and provide a redressal mechanism for grievances. However, all these important functions of the Council are suspended due to it being headless.
A senior official in the H&ME Department said the new Council will have eight members, four each from Jammu and Kashmir decisions.
He said the decision for the Chairperson of the Council had also been finalized. “There was only one name in the fray for the post of Chairman and the honorable Lieutenant Governor has approved that,” he said.
The department also tweeted about the Council from its official handle Monday evening. For the past six months, doctors and scholars were unable to seek registrations and apply for conferences and other medical education activities, the official said.