LAWS,ETHICS AND THE SUSPENDED WORKSHOP

NOTE:This is not meant to offend my dear friends and colleagues who have studied and worked hard to earn formidable and respectable international post-graduate qualifications,and are now able specialists in their respectable fields.However people outside this list,State Medical Councils,and who swear by bizarre rules & regulations of The Code of Ethics which govern the morality of Indian Physicians are not granted the same goodwill and are welcome to take offense in any way they think they can perceive.

Section1.4.2 of CODE OF ETHICS REGULATIONS:

 Physicians shall display as suffix to their names only recognized medical degrees or such certificates/diplomas and memberships/honours which confer professional knowledge or recognizes any exemplary qualification/achievements.

Now that this fact has been brought to my notice,I am not mentioning exactly what I wrote in my letterhead but one can make a guess something like "Ex-AAA,Dept.of AAA(department which is practically contextual with Cardiology & Intensive Care),XXX ,Hospital,YYY Country,which definitely gives one the impression that I have worked in YYY country for a certain period of time as a physician in departments where subjects like Cardiology & Intensive Care are very much relevant.The reason of my masking the informative particulars by arbitrary English alphabets is:it shall be improper to mention the details going by the norms of Regulation of The Code of Ethics of MCI which do not recognize these data and look upon them as potential ways of unethical self-advertisement and professional Misconduct which is punishiable not by the Indian Penal Code but by The Code(supposed to treated by me like The Holy Grail),so nowhere do I want to mention them specifically as part of the suffix to my name.After all,I remain suspended and feel like I am suspended in Time & Space.

From the time of my medical graduation to when it was intimated to me by the Maharashtra Medical Council,I was completely unaware of this section of the Code of Ethics.There is a plausible reason for that which is definitely NOT what the Code of Ethics wants to prevent-self advertisement or trying to pose as a specialist of any subject with an intention of cheating people.
In Mumbai,Maharashtra, MBBS doctors often write "General Physician & Surgeon".This puts the MBBS General Surgeon and  the MS General Surgeon in the same bracket in terms of nomen clature but this apparent self-advertisement of the MBBS as a qualified,dependablele General Surgeon is strangely allowed by Regulations of The Code of Ethics.
From my childhood to this moment,I have been seeing,and still see many doctors,including eminent ones,mentioning particulars like FRCS,FRCP,MRCP,MRCOG,MRCPsyc.,etc.,United Kingdom,FACP,MCCP,MACP,etc.,United States or for that matter,Memberships,Fellowships&Diplomas of European countries including Switzerland,Austria,Germany,Poland,Russia & Ukraine,including Dermatology,Plastic,Cosmetic&Reconstructive Surgery,Joint-replacement Surgery,Physiatry,Ophthalmology,Otorhhinolaryngeology,and sub-sections(read super-specialisations)of Surgery like Endoscopy,"Key-hole Surgery","Button-hole Surgery","Laser  Surgery"(+ without Trauma) or for topics closer to "subjects of interest"to my own self such as Interventional Cardiology.

I remember one eminent Cardiologist of yore once commenting on the term 'interventional'-his personal opinion was that Interventional procedures are actually Invasive,and that makes it a Surgical technique-albeit minimally invasive,so that makes an interventional cardiologist a 'minimally invasive cardiac surgeon'-a topic needlessly made overcomplicated and fierce debatable by us doctors ourselves over time.I guess most doctors still try to keep their paranormal,extra-terrestrial,unapproacheable aura around themselves,a job which tradition itself used to do once upon a time in the west and the east,ultimately awarding a 'demigod' status.This status(not to be questioned whether enviable or avoidable)has vanished away(not to questioned whether for better or for worse)mainly by the evolution of the medical mind towards a more evolved,corrupt state-a matter of insecurity for doctors generally speaking.   

We can keep our minds involved and cerebration active on relevant professional(and simpler)issues like how to make specific lines of treatment better or more patient-friendly,simply speaking How to Serve Mankind and Fight Diseases better.I remember another eminent micro-miniscule-specialist commenting in jocular tone over a drink at the end of an international symposium,"we shouldn't become so involved in such issues(read research on patient-friendly techniques),otherwise they will stop coming!".

Health professionals deal with human health.Human health includes a complex entity called The Mind.In the Mind,there are partially neuro-biochemical procedures taking place all around the clock which create Thoughts.Sometimes we think that we think so we are.We also think that we are so we think that we are.We also might think that we are so we are to think that we think we are.Complicated.

If we add to it attributes like morality and the relativity of what divides the world into good and bad,of what is proper and improper,it cannot be expected to be harnessed by blunt laws and codes.It requires sensitive thinking.

That,of course,requires Sensitive Minds.