The state medical council has asked doctors who are registered in other states but practising in Bengal to also register with the West Bengal Medical Council.
The decision was taken at a board meeting of the council on Thursday.
Besides doctors, the decision is also targeted at postgraduate students whose MBBS registration is in another state.
Those who are still not registered with the state council must do so within three months, the notice said.
A council member said that they came across instances of negligence by doctors but could not act against them because they were registered in other states.
The state’s medical council can act only if the doctor is registered in this state.
“We have asked all doctors who have their registration in other states but are working in Bengal to get registered with the state medical council,” said Sudipto Roy, president of the West Bengal Medical Council.
Another council member said there were about 70,000 doctors working in the state who are registered with the state medical council.
The number of doctors from other states who are not registered with the state’s medical council would also be a few hundred, said the member.
The notice said: “All medical practitioners who are in employment in any capacity or in private practice regular and/or on periodic visit in the State of West Bengal or is undergoing any postgraduate studies in any medical establishment within the geographical jurisdiction of the State of West Bengal must have registration with the West Bengal Medical Council.”
The notice added: “Those who still do not have registration with the West Bengal Medical Council are hereby instructed to do the same within 3 months from the date of this Notice.”
Kaushik Biswas, a board member of the state’s medical council, said if a doctor
was found guilty of improper conduct or negligence, the state medical council would have no power to act against him or her if the person was not registered with it.
The medical council has powers to suspend a doctor from seeing patients for a
few months, warn a doctor or even cancel his or her registration.
“We are not asking them to forego their registrations in other states. We are asking them to also get registered with us,” said Biswas.
“About a fortnight ago, we also asked private hospitals to send us lists of all doctors with their names, registration numbers, qualifications and the state in which they are registered,” he said.
Officials of some private hospitals in the city said that most of their doctors who were from other states are also registered with the West Bengal Medical Council.
“The process is quite simple and most doctors do it on their own,” said a senior official of a private hospital.
