Certify all Weighing machines used by doctors: New Maharashtra Dept order Leaves Doctors Dumbfounded

Latur: Medical practitioners in Maharashtra have been left in a state of utter confusion with the recent letter written by the Legal Metrology Department to the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Latur branch.

In the letter, the Department was seen asking the IMA Latur branch to ensure that all the weighing machines used by the doctors need to be certified by vendors, who are certified for this purpose.

Referring to Rule 12 of the Maharashtra Legal Metrology (A) Rules 2011, the Department mentioned that every person using any weighing measure for any transaction is bound to submit such weighing measures to the office of the Legal Metrology officer for investigation.

"Otherwise, any such persons can be punished with a fine of Rs 5,000," the Department mentioned.

With this, the Department asked the Latur branch of IMA to request all the doctors to get all the weighing machines checked and stamped by the office.

The letter soon became viral over social media and drew a sharp reaction from the medical fraternity as the doctors were confused about the lack of clarification regarding the matter. This also created panic among the doctors as the Department mentioned about impending punitive actions.

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Explaining the matter, the president of the IMA Latur branch, Dr. Anil Rathi told Medical Dialogues, "There was a lot of ambiguity regarding the matter since even the officials were not sure which machines need to be certified."

"After getting the letter, I shared it with my colleagues and had a discussion regarding the issue. We also sent it to State IMA seeking its comments," he added.

The State IMA in its clarification mentioned that as per Chapter II, Section 3, hospitals do not come under the scope of the Legal Metrology Act, 2009, and Legal Metrology (Enforcement) Rules, 2011 and so no license should be required by hospitals.

Referring to this, Dr. Rathi further mentioned, "After we sent the clarification to the Department, they have clarified that the Personal Weighing scale and digital weighing scale do not need any certification. They need to be certified at the time of purchase only. Few hospitals have weighing scales that are used for trading purposes. Those need to be calibrated on a yearly basis."

"We have told all our members not to have those types of machines unless they are certified on yearly basis. They can use digital or personal weighing scales without any regular certification and only at the time of purchase only from the vendor itself. Such vendors are available and they can give certification at the time of purchase," he further added.

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