Stripped of specialist tag, 1700 PGDCC Doctors write to Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan

The government of India along with IGNOU launched the PGDCC course. The then Union Health Minister Dr Anbumoni Ramdoss inaugurated this course. This course is now not recognized by MCI.

New Delhi : In the wake of Medical Council of India (MCI) stripping the specialist tag of over 1700 post-graduate Diploma holders in Clinical Cardiology (PGDCC) course from Indira Gandhi National Open University between 2006-13, the doctors under the umbrella of Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists have appealed to Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare for help.

Medical Dialogues team had earlier reported about the setback to these candidates, with the recent MCI Board of Governors decision that refused to include PGDCC degree from IGNOU as a recognised PG Medical qualification. With this move around 1700 PGDCC graduates who had attained their degrees from IGNOU lost their specialist tag.

With their careers at stake, doctors under the umbrella of the Indian Association of Clinical Cardiologists have written a letter to the Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan, explaining their plight and demanded relief. The doctors pointed out that the course had been launched by IGNOU and government of India itself and had even been inaugurated by the then Health Minister.

"It is an irony that MCI is snatching the tag of specialist from PGDCC cardiologist on extremely bizarre grounds. The government of India along with IGNOU launched this diploma course. The then Union Health Minister Dr Anbumoni Ramdoss inaugurated this course. Now they say that this course is not recognized. University Grant Commission in a notification in 1992 says that the certificates, diplomas, and degrees awarded by IGNOU are to be treated equivalent to the corresponding awards of the universities in the country", said Dr Rajesh Rajan, Chairman, IACC Board of Governors.

Explaining their case the letter further added that the two-year PGDCC course was not a distance-education course but a full-time in-house resident training program similar to any other MCI recognised diploma in the country. The said course was conducted after an all-India entrance exam in 77 tertiary care hospitals including many teaching government medical colleges in India.

The PGDCC course was conducted along with DM and DNB cardiology program and teaching faculty remained the same for both PGDCC and DNB/DM cardiology.

"The PGDCC curriculum and syllabus were designed by the famous cardiology Professor, Dr George Cherian who was instrumental in the launching of DM cardiology course in India," the letter further explained

It added that MCI's major objection was over the evaluation of the training program in accordance with the MCI Act 1956. MCI claims that IGNOU had not obtained the NOC before starting the course.

"On one hand the government of India launched historic projects like 'Ayushman Bharat' to help the poor and needy and on the other hand, MCI destroys the government project by not giving recognition to PGDCC doctors, of which the majority are working in rural India and practicing preventive cardiology. Indians have realised that prevention is much better than cure. When the country needs 88000 thousand cardiologists to take care of our entire population according to world health organization (WHO) standards with great empathy we in India have only 4000 plus cardiologists including PGDCC doctors. Prime Minister and Health minister should question the intention of MCI to destroy the rural health sector of India. IACC submitted a project named 'Mission Early Detection and effective management of cardiovascular diseases in rural India', 'MEDIA' i.e. to start a cardiac ICU in all 600 districts in India especially rural India and to make use of this 1706 clinical cardiology specialists", said Dr Rajan.

The letter also drew attention to the near-identical case- 'Diploma in Cardiology' from CSJM University, GSVM Medical College, Kanpur, has been recognized by MCI-BOG & it has been added to the nomenclature of the MCI very recently in September 2019.

The letter appealed the Union Health Minister to "not let go waste the valuable skills of 1700+doctors" and grant recognition to the PGDCC qualification under section 11(2) of the IMC Act.