Srinagar: With the State Medical Council having been defunct for months, the medical professionals in J&K are facing hardships in getting mandatory certification while masses have no avenue to get their complaints investigated and grievances redressed. A new body, J&K Government said, would be constituted in a month’s time.
In April this year, Chairman J&K Medical Council Dr Saleem ur Rehman completed his three-year tenure. The Council has been defunct since then with the government “deferring” the constitution of new body.
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.
Moreover, the Council is expected to investigate and provide a redressal mechanism for grievances. It being headless, all these important functions of the Council are suspended.
Many doctors working in private hospitals and in other countries have been facing immense hardships due to this.
A doctor who has been struggling to get a No Objection Certificate for continuing his job in Saudi Arabia said he is about to lose his job due to the failure to get the requisite documents from the Council.
Similarly, many new pass-outs from medical institutes are without registration and verification rendering them ill-equipped to get a job or admission to an institute for higher qualification.
When the Additional Chief Secretary J&K Government (Health and Medical Education) Vivek Bhardwaj was asked about the delay in constituting a new body and head for J&K Medical Council, he said, the Government was already on the job.
He said there were some “legal complications” which were being sorted out. “We are in the process of finalizing the names and expect to have a new body in a few weeks,” he said. Bhardwaj said the Government was “fully aware” of the problems faced in absence of a functional Council and was committed to complete the process before the end of September.
A senior healthcare official said the Government was looking at four probable names to head the Council including from among the few retired medical professionals.