PG Times

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked search engines such as Google and Yahoo to adopt in-house mechanisms to identify and block content relating to pre-natal sex determination. “The sex ratio is going down and this is likely to affect the prospect of human race,” the court observed orally. A bench headed by justice Dipak Misra also directed the centre to constitute a nodal agency empowered to take action on any TV, radio and newspaper advertisements for pre-natal sex determination. “Any content in contravention with the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act (PNDT), 1994 cannot be permitted,” the court said. However, search engines opposed the court’s directive to filter content suggesting that it would open a pandora’s box. The court’s order asking search engine companies to regulate content on the web is seen by free speech activists as a move allowing censorship by private parties. The PNDT Act prescribes three-year jail for advertisements relating to ...

EVEN before the drama over the death of a pregnant nurse on February 4 started, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) had been witnessing a silent tussle between two important wings — nurses and resident doctors. While battlelines are now clearly drawn between the two sides over the suspension of five resident doctors accused of negligence, the two wings have been at loggerheads for the last six months over another issue — who will draw blood samples of patients. The issue cropped up in August last year, when the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) unilaterally decided that no resident doctor would draw blood samples. Sources confirmed that the proposal was given a green signal by the medical superintendent. However, the nurses’ union opposed the decision and the resident doctors went back to drawing the samples. The RDA argued that drawing blood samples has resulted in “increased work load” and “decreased time, which should be spent on developing skills for ...

Peter Mansfield, who won the medicine Nobel prize in 2003 for developing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), has died aged 83. The scanning technology he pioneered in the 1970s is now routinely used for diagnosing illnesses and injury – nowadays virtually every hospital has a MRI machine. Sir Peter Mansfield, who laid the scientific foundations of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), failed his 11-plus exams but blossomed into one of the UK’s leading medical technologists and a Nobel Prize winner. Mansfield, who died this week at the age of 83, was the son of a London gas fitter and grew up in Camberwell, south London. After leaving his secondary modern school at 15, he worked first as a printer’s assistant and then as a technician at the government’s Rocket Propulsion Establishment in Westcott, Buckinghamshire. His academic aptitude emerged there when he did A-levels part-time. He went on to study physics at Queen Mary University of London, where he worked on nuclear magn...

A day after the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) administration revoked the suspension of five resident doctors, the nursing union organised a protest march near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Wednesday. The nurses have alleged that a 28-year-old colleague died due to the negligence of these doctors. They have requested Union Health Minister JP Nadda to intervene in the matter. “The facts have been manipulated. We demand suspension of the Medical Superintendent, since he has attempted to save the resident doctors,”the nursing union members wrote in their letter to the minister. Late on Tuesday, the AIIMS administration had revoked the suspension order of five doctors after it failed to find any substantial evidence against them. The doctors then resumed their services. “The preliminary fact-finding inquiry report has found that there is no substantial evidence of any intentional gross medical negligence. The suspension orders of the junior and the senior resid...

AIIMS Resident Doctors Association (RDA) on Thursday extended olive branch to the nurses union, relations between whom have frayed over the death of a nurse, assuring that it would not shield the guilty even as it urged that the enquiry committee be allowed to do its work. The RDA also posed some questions to the AIIMS administration wondering why no enquiry committee was formed soon after the death of the nurse, Rajbir Kaur, and also questioned the "lack of resources" in the maternity OT. "Who is responsible for lack of manpower like that of a senior resident anaesthesiologist in the labour room for 24 hours?" the RDA statement asked. The doctors' forum said it had "raised concern" as few of its members were "targeted" without proper enquiry. It sought to know as to how the administration acted "only" on the basis of complaint of the nurses' union. "We are all brothers and sisters who have to work in the same...

While issuing the orders, AIIMS had referred to the preliminary report by the committee which stated that based on available medical records that there was no substantial evidence of any intentional gross medical negligence by the treating team of doctors of Obstetrics, Gynaecology and anaesthesiology AIIMS Nurses' Union today held a protest over the hospital administration revoking suspension of five resident doctors in connection with their colleague's death due to alleged negligence at the premier institution. The union also refused to accept the preliminary report by the committee headed by medical superintendent D K Sharma which ruled out any "intentional gross medical negligence" on part of the five doctors concerned claiming they have "evidence" against them which they will share publicly at the right time. "We do not accept the preliminary report by the committee headed by medical superintendent D K Sharma. We will wait for the n...

Succumbing to the pressure by the Resident Doctors Association (RDA), AIIMS administration today revoked the suspension of five doctors over a nurse's death due to alleged negligence, which resulted in the association calling off the strike.  However, the order triggered an immediate reaction from the Nurses' Union at AIIMS which has planned to hold protest against the decision. Immediately after the revocation orders were issued, RDA called off their partial strike which had paralysed the services at the wards and the OPDs at the premier government health institute.  While issuing the orders, AIIMS referred to the preliminary report by the committee headed by medical superintendent D K Sharma, which ruled out any "intentional gross medical negligence" on part of the team of doctors.  "The Director AIIMS has received the preliminary fact finding enquiry report in which the enquiry committee has reached the considered opinion ba...

India's elemental healthcare infrastructure seems to be in a `critical condition' with a meagre 19% availability of specialist doctors in the community health centres (CHCs) across the country .According to the statistics released by the Union health ministry on Friday , there is a shortfall of 17,854 medical specialists including surgeons, physicians, pediatricians, obstetricians and gynecologists. CHCs, which are located in towns and serve as referral centres for patients coming from the primary health centres (PHCs), are vital to improving the country's healthcare landscape. The total number of specialist doctors working at CHCs across the country is 4,186 against the current requirement is of 22,040. Among the states that face a shortfall of specialists, Uttar Pradesh (shortfall of 2,608 doctors) tops the list followed by Rajasthan (1,787), Tamil Nadu (1,464), West Bengal (1,271), Odisha (1,154), Gujarat (1,140), Madhya Pradesh (1,047) and Maharashtra (935...

The resident doctors' association of AIIMS has threatened to go on strike demanding reinstatement of five of their colleagues who were suspended on charges of medical negligence following the death of a staff nurse. Rajbir Kaur, 28, staff nurse with the hospital had died on Sunday during treatment. Her death had triggered a massive protest by the nurses union. The AIIMS administration had suspended five doctors, three senior and two junior residents, on charges of medical negligence. On Monday the resident doctors' association staged a protest against the suspension of their colleagues and threatened for a strike if their demands are not met. "According to a Supreme Court's order, no doctor can be suspended without a thorough enquiry. The AIIMS administration's order seems to have been announced after pressure from the nurses union. The administration should revoke the suspension and take action against whosoever is found guilty in the enquiry," said D...

To ensure availability of specialist doctors at the secondary and tertiary levels, the Centre today announced the creation of additional 5,000 post- graduate (PG) seats every year even as it increased the budget allocation for the health sector by almost 28 per cent. The government also announced setting up of two more All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Jharkhand and Gujarat and asserted that it has prepared an action plan to eliminate kala-azar and filariasis by 2017, leprosy by 2018, measles by 2020 and tuberculosis by 2025. The Centre said that while Drugs and Cosmetics Rules will be amended to ensure availability of drugs at reasonable prices, new rules for regulating medical devices will also be formulated soon while asserting that 1.5 lakh health sub- centres will be transformed into Health and Wellness Centres across the country. According to the Union Budget 2017 presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley today, the budget allocation for healt...