TN Medical council classifies 11,000 senior doctors as Dormant for lack of updation of credentials

Chennai: The Tamil Nadu Medical Council (TNMC) has recently classified around 11,000 senior doctors over the age of 70 as "dormant and inaccessible" after they failed to update their credentials with the council in given time duration.

The Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported that to create an active registry of doctors to determine the actual number of medical practitioners working in the state, the TN Medical Council had released a notification last year in the state gazette. It asked the senior doctors to update their credentials failing which they would be considered out of practice.

It was stated by the registrar of the council, "The Tamil Nadu Medical Council directs all its registered medical practitioners above the age of 70 years as on 1st June 2018 to update their credentials with the Council from 1st December 2018 to 31st January 2019."

The doctors were asked to provide their registration certificates, Aadhaar cards and proof of practice as prescribed on to the website of the state medical council.

However, the deadline was further extended to March 31^st. The notification had mentioned that those Senior Doctors who would not update the credentials in the given time will be listed as "Dormant and Inaccessible Practitioners'.

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Now, those senior doctors who failed to update will now not be eligible for privileges given to them by the Council for practical purposes they will be considered de-listed from the Registry. These doctors will also not be eligible to practice medicine until they update the medical council about their status.

Dr K Senthil, President of Tamil Nadu Medical Council told the TOI, "For now they are delisted from the active registry and will not be able to practice medicine. Some 300 families have sent death reports. Others have to furnish details to get back into the registry."

"To make it convenient for the seniors, we have asked them to send the details by post," he further added.

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According to the record, around 15,000 of the state's 1.4 lakh registered medical practitioners were over the age of 70 and were presumed not in practice. Many doctors were noted to be even beyond the age of 90, and the council had no exact idea whether these doctors were in practice or not.