Maharashtra Medical Council cautious about live surgeries by foreign doctors

After the death of a liver cirrhosis patient while undergoing a live surgery by a Japanese surgeon at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) has decided to sensitise doctors and hospitals in the city. City hospitals have been seeing a rising number of foreign doctors coming down to conduct live surgeries in workshops. According to the MMC, it receives seven-eight such requests in a year.

"Any doctor coming from abroad for live demonstration of surgery at any medical organisation must take temporary registration from the Medical Council of India (MCI) or the State Medical Council concerned. If a foreign doctor takes permission from the MCI and goes on to demonstrate a surgery in a particular state, then the organising secretary of the event has to inform the state council. If any foreign doctor examines an Indian patient or performs a surgery on him/her in India without the MCI or the state council permission, strict action will be taken against the organisers," said Dr Shivkumar Utture, member, MCI.

According to MMC rules and regulations published on its website, if any medical organisation wanted foreign doctors to perform any live surgery, it has to not only take permission from the state council, but also submit the documents for the council's review.

"After the Delhi incident, we have taken precaution and given wider publicity to this issue. Now, the documents submitted by the foreign doctors will be screened and cross-checked before giving the permission," said Dr Utture.

The patient, identified as 62-year-old Shobha Ram, was undergoing laparoscopic liver resection procedure. The patient had liver cirrhosis due to hepatitis-B infection. The procedure was part of the 23rd annual conference of the Indian National Association for Study of the Liver, hosted jointly by AIIMS and the Army Research & Referral Hospital, New Delhi. Over a hundred surgeons watched as Dr Goro Honda from Japan's Tokyo Metropolitan Cancer and Infectious Diseases Center performed the surgery at AIIMS. The Japanese doctor was assisted by an Indian team led by Dr Sujoy Pal, an associate professor in the gastrointestinal surgery department of AIIMS.