Telangana Medical Council has fewer registered doctors than Goa!

Even Himachal, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh states have more registered doctors than Telangana

There is one allopathy doctor for every 1183 Indians right now but sorry, I am not going to analyse the pros and cons of it as it is not the news focus for this blog story. 

That India has a total of 10,22,859 doctors holding a recognized primary medical qualification and registered with Medical Council of India (MCI) as on 31st March, 2017 too is not the focus of this blog story either. (See the full table of registered doctors below)

What's The Focus

The focus is on Telangana State Medical Council poor track-record in convincing practicing doctors in the state to register their degrees with them. 

With only 0.23% (2345) practicing doctors out of the total  10,22,859 doctors in India registered with Telangana State Medical Council, it looks very shameful at least in government records as their numbers are less than what doctors in smaller states like Goa and Himachal Pradesh state medical councils have registered.

For instance, Goa state medical council has a total of 3,336 registered doctors while Himachal Pradesh state medical council has 2,849 registered doctors with them. What's shameful is that even newly carved states like Uttarakhand (6,662) and Jharkhand (5,003) and Chattisgarh (6,584) state medical councils too have more number of registered doctors than Telangana.


This is because Hyderabad is slowly emerging as a top destination for global health tourism what with the city being home to over 30 National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) certified and two Joint Commission International (JCI) approved hospitals.

In fact, a rough estimate puts number of practising doctors in the 20 odd Telangana Super Specialty Hospitals Association  and branches of their associate hospital-members to be around 2,500 to 3,000 doctors, more than total registered doctors in Telangana State Medical Council register!. 

Even a large scale corporate hospital like Apollo group may itself be employing over 1000 practising doctors in all its city branches but begs a million-dollar question is where are the others?

This is responded by senior doctors and leaders of Telangana IMA often pointing to the bifurcation blues and confusion surrounding division of assets between Telangana and AP Medical Councils. 

Sr. No.	Name of the Medical Council	Number of Doctors
1.	Andhra Pradesh Medical Council	86129
2.	Arunachal Pradesh Medical Council	792
3.	Assam Medical Council	22454
4.	Bihar Medical Council	40043
5.	Chattisgarh Medical Council	6584
6.	Delhi Medical Council	15246
7.	Goa Medical Council	3336
8.	Gujarat Medical Council	53954
9.	Haryana Dental & Medical Council	5717
10.	Himachal Pradesh Medical Council	2849
11.	Jammu & Kashmir	14188
12.	Jharkhand Medical Council	5003
13.	Karnataka Medical Council	101273
14.	Madhya Pradesh Medical Council	34347
15.	Maharashtra Medical Council	153513
16.	Medical Council of India	52666
17.	Nagaland Medical Council	801
18.	Orissa Council of Medical Registration	21681
19.	Punjab Medical Council	44682
20.	Rajasthan Medical Council	38677
21.	Sikkim Medical Council	893
22.	Tamil Nadu Medical Council	121847
23.	Travancore Medical Council	52474
24.	Uttar Pradesh Medical Council	69208
25.	Uttrakhand Medical Council	6662
26.	West Bengal Medical Council	65486
27.	Telangana Medical Council	2354
	Total	10,22,859

Is Telangana State Medical Council serious?

I don't know how the medical registration laws are being interpreted by those at the helm of Telangana State Medical Council, i.e the following members: 

• Dr. Raj Siddarth, Associate Professor of Surgery, Kakatiya Medical College, Warangal. 
• Dr. V. Rajalingam, Associate Professor of Ophthalmology, Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital, Hyderabad.
• Dr. G. Rama Krishna Reddy, Physician, H.No.3-5-1093, Venkateshwara Colony, Narayanaguda, Hyderabad.
• Dr. E. Ravindra Reddy, Pediatrician, S.V.R Hospital, Khaleelwadi, Nizamabad.
• Dr. Ch. Jaganmohan Rao, Ophthalmologist, H.No.2-8-79, Flat No.404, Poulomi Towers, Mukarampura, Karimnagar.
• Dr. B. Ramesh Kumar, Associate Professor of Gastroenterology, Osmania Medical College/ Osmania General Hospital, Hyderabad.

This is because a clear reading of the provisions of  both Indian Medical Council Act, 1956 and Telangana state Medical Practitioners Registration Act (which was formally adopted under Telangna State Medical Council Adaptation Notification issued in GOMS.No.68 from their AP counterpart in 2014) leave no doubt as to what a practising doctor in a state needs to do.

For the benefit of this blog's readers, i am reproducing the relevant sections.

click to enlarge

The above section makes it amply clear for a registered medical practitioner to practice anywhere in the country just like All India travel permit you see on trucks!

Well, fine but this section has to be harmoniously blended with section 15D of Telangana state Medical Practitioners Registration Act . It reads: 

Click to enlarge

This makes it clear that even if a registered allopathy practitioner from another state  were to practice without getting their names registered with Telangana state Medical Practitioners Registration Act, they will be treated as guests under section 15D. Read the full Act here.

It would mean for every surgery conducted in Telangana hospitals, they will have to apply to the registrar for the purpose of temporary permission for undertaking their professional work or else, I believe this could be deadly ground if they were to be mired in any medico-legal cases whether it is before a consumer forum or the state medical council ethics committee.

Also Read: Exclusive: Surgery in a hurry, Yashoda Hospital doctors fined Rs 7 lakh

Other disadantages for not registering with Telangana state Medical Council?

 Well, the disadvantages of not registering with Telangana Medical Council seem to be more than being with AP Medical Council.

These are the ones I managed to shortlist.

• You can forget applying to any government sector medical and health job in Telangana state as local registration is mandatory before you apply.
•  Registration of a new hospital/clinic in Hyderabad or any part of the state is impossible if the doctor-owner has no legal registration with Telangana State Medical Council. 
• Even for renewal of existing hospitals, nursing homes and clinics with local DMNHOs, they too would insist on local registration.
• Get ready to go around the Ethics Committees of both AP and Telangana State Medical Council offices if you get mired in any ethics case even as the complainant may get an advantage of the confusion in legal fight against you.
• In case the  Ethics Committee of Telangana State Medical Council takes suo moto action against a doctor (who happens to be registered with AP) in any ethics case, there could be some paper work involved. 

Reaction: What IMA Hyderabad President Says?

Well, the reaction of Indian Medical Association, Hyderabad has been on expected lines what with its city president and general surgeon Dr. Sanjeev Singh Yadav terming the non-registration of local doctors with Telangana State Medical Council as illegal.

"It is the doctors' duty to register their names with the state medical council in the state where they are practising. Unfortunately, there is no vigilance wing in the Telangana State Medical Council to force all doctors fall in line with the local registration rules," he told this blogger.

In fact, deadlines were given to doctors to get themselves registered with Telangana State Medical Council but they fell on deaf ears.

However, in the event of doctors failing to comply with  Telangana state Medical Practitioners Registration Act, they will have to eventually fall in line as all doctors need to re-register their names once in five years.

Also Read: My Take On Quackery: IMA Please Stop Short-Cut, Go For A Frontal Attack