Although pharmaceutical industry has been under regulatory control in India for the last thirty years, healthcare institutions like hospitals, nursing homes and diagnostic centres remain largely outside the purview of government scrutiny. Same is the case with the medical profession. Currently, there is no law to regulate the medical practice and review the competence levels and skills of medical professionals once they start practising. A large majority of the middle class and poor people depend on general practitioners working in public and private institutions for their medical needs. Periodic updating of knowledge of medical practices and pharmaceuticals is considered to be extremely important for these professionals to ensure that the sick and the poor are getting the right treatment at reasonable costs. And the Union minister for health, Mr Ambumani Ramadoss was right in saying that there is a need for periodic re registration for the practicing medical professionals in the country. Most doctors do not keep pace with the latest developments and as a result get outdated within a decade of practice. The minister's suggestion in this regard that members of this profession should undergo a test in every five years and get a re registration for continuing medical practice is thus quite valid. Such a requirement can force them to learn latest developments in the medical and pharmaceutical sectors. According to him the system is prevailing in most of the developed countries and in the US, the revalidation is being done every year.
The medical profession does not seem to be very comfortable with minister's suggestion. A section of the profession feels that it is too pre mature to place restrictions on qualified practitioners when the government is yet to control the menace of unqualified quacks in the country. It is not fair to take such a stand just because the government has not been successful in controlling quacks. Total elimination of quacks will be just impossible in a vast country like India in the near future and that inability of the government should not be held as an excuse to oppose a reform process in medical practice. Dr K. K. Aggarwal, president elect of Delhi Medical Association, agrees that CME is imperative for doctors to keep abreast of latest medical developments but does not want it to be made mandatory. In fact, professional bodies like Indian Medical Association and its constituents should support the government initiative in this regard as it is ultimately going to help to raise the self esteem and image of this profession. And the government on its part, should simplify the whole system of re registration by providing easy and adequate facilities for CME to the medical profession all over the country.