IMA vs. QPMPA — Part 1 — The Kickoff
Monday, 09 August 2010 14:45
In Gods Own Country — Kerala
Chairman, PHB, IMA - Dr. R. V. Asokan vs. Secretary, QPMPA - Dr. K. Kishore Kumar
Two old friends now in opposite camps and members in IMA & QPMPA
The trailer —
Both the characters involved, Drs. Asokan & Kishore, are good friends and they are now in opposite camps with authority. One is the Chairman of the Private Hospital Board (PHB) of the Kerala IMA, a National organisation. The other is the State Secretary of another National Organisation, the QPMPA.
How & why they parted company at the association level is another story and beyond the scope of this page?
After winning two cases in the Kerala High Court in January & February 2010, Dr. Kishore, the QPMPA State Secretary wrote a letter to the members on 24/2/2010, saying that the QPMPA is fighting 8 Court cases in various Courts in India and is badly in need of funds. The amount requested ranged from Rs. 500 to Rs. 25,000, depending on the paying capacity of the members.
The poor response from the members forced Dr. Kishore to sent a reminder on 4/3/2010 requesting donations in the same range — from Rs. 500 to Rs. 25,000.
On 26 March 2010, the QPMPA was informed of the dismissal of the Drug Licence Case in High Court of Kerala.
At the Extraordinary General Body Meeting held on 27 March 2010 at the IMA Hall, Kozhikode to approve the Memorandum, Rules and Byelaws of QPMPA India, the Drug Licence case was also discussed and the house decided to fight it out at the Apex Court by filing an SLP.
The Secretary Dr. Kishore was directed to approach the members for financial assitance and his letter dated 29 April 2010 is shown below:-
To, All QPMPA Members & Well-wishers —
Sub: SLP in Apex Court — Drug Licence Case — reg.
Dear Members & Doctors,
We inform you that the QPMPA lost the Drug Licence Case filed in the Hon’ble High Court of Kerala — WP(C) No. 38494 of 2003 (Y). We have been fighting this issue from 1990 onwards.
Heard that the Drug Wholesalers are refusing to sell medicines to Hospitals and Clinics without a Drug Licence. However, you can overcome this hurdle by demanding medicines in the name of the “Registered Medical Practitioner” running the establishment. We still enjoy the exemption granted under Item 5 of Schedule K. (It is true that we lost the demand to include us under Item 5A.)
As the Drugs Department of Kerala is very adamant to bring our establishments under their License Raj, it is our moral duty to approach the Supreme Court of India once again for a final constitutional settlement in this matter. If we back out, the Drugs Department will impose this license raj on all hospitals all over India and a constitutional right that we enjoyed for the last 70 years will be lost forever.
We have entrusted the SLP (Special Leave Petition) filing to senior advocates in Delhi and that will be done in two weeks. Liquid cash is a major problem and our two appeals in the last two months have not evoked much favourable response from the Members.
The annual Drug Licence fee is Rs. 3,000. The various cases against Drug Licence by the QPMPA during the last 20 years have helped all hospital owners financially and mentally.
follow the scale given below:-
One-man show Clinics and Hospitals having up to 20 beds: Rs. 5,000
Hospitals having 20 to 100 beds: Rs. 10,000
Hospitals having more than 100 beds: Rs. 20,000
Yours sincerely,
Dr. K. Kishore Kumar, State Secretary
Mob: 9447485532
However, the above letters, as usual, were not impressive or inciting to many of the erudite members. The response was poor from the 2,000 or so members in the QPMPA, who are all hospital owners employing more than 20,000 registered medical practitioners in Kerala. The range from Rs. 500 to 25,000 changed to Rs. 5,000 to 20,000! This was also a blessing for all those waiting for an excuse not to pay!
These demands for financial assistance was also a blessing in disguise for the IMA Kerala, demoralised in two important issues affecting the medical profession recently, by the timely actions of the QPMPA.
The first somersault by the Kerala IMA was in the
TCMC Re-registration issue in January 2010:-
The Kerala IMA leadership, on the strength of the notifications of the Medical Council of India, badly wanted all the Modern Medicine Doctors in Kerala to re-register after undergoing a 30 hours CME on short notice.
However, the only motive of the Kerala IMA was to make some money by conducting mega-CME programmes. Though the permitted strength of a CME is 200, the IMA has conducted one CME for 3,000 doctors in one day! The monthly IMA Newsletters and the Press conferences from all major towns generated a fear psychosis and stirred up the medical fraternity to fall into this illegal trap.
Ignoring the propaganda and disinformation campaign of the IMA for re-registration, the QPMPA filed a case in Kerala High Court in November 2009 -- WP (C) No. 31277/2009 challenging the orders of the Travancore-Cochin Medical Council constitutionally. The High Court verdict came in January 2010 in our favour.
For a permanent registration of the TCMC we paid only Rs. 20 years ago. Now they demanded Rs. 500 plus an envelope for a renewal for five years! All the details are there in QPMPA.JMS Vol. XXIV, No. 1, February 2010 and an earlier issue, available at our website www.qpmpa.org. This was a real insult for many of the king makers in the IMA Kerala State Branch.
The second insult for the Kerala IMA was the stay obtained by the QPMPA for the Minimum Wages Case in February 2010:-
The Kerala IMA leaders, on the strength of the "Private Hospital Board" attended one Minimum Wages Committee sitting at Thiruvananthapuram. Their presence was questioned by some trade union leaders and were insulted. However, the IMA Newsletter, gave a different picture of achievements as usual to fool the members!
When the Minimum Wages notification dated 16.12.2009 came, the State IMA decided to back-out. We can assume that the private hospital owners in PHB may have decided to pay as directed by the Government.
However, the QPMPA filed a case against it in the Kerala High Court - WP (C) No. 1981/2010 and obtained a stay on 23 February 2010.
The Kerala IMA was waiting for an opportunity to settle scores. The letters requesting financial assistance from members of the QPMPA dated 14/2/2010, 14/3/2010 and 29/4/2010 by the State Secretary Dr. Kishore came in handy for the IMA.
The Private Hospital Board (PHB) of the IMA was started in December 2009 and the first press conference launching this Board by the IMA was aimed at denigrating the QPMPA. The details are there in the December 2009 issue of the QPMPA Journal.
The very purpose of this Private Hospital Board of IMA is now questionable! At every place the Chairman of this Board says that the QPMPA must look after the interest of the Private Hospitals and that the IMA is answerable only to its members and their rights! All the letters published in News & Events under Drug Licence -- IMA vs QPMPA - Part 2. http://www.qpmpa.org/news-and-events/9-drug-licence-case/36-ima-vs-qpmpa-part-2-ima-letters-in-may-2010.html
To the great surprise of IMA in Kerala and its advocates in Delhi the SLPs filed by IMA (No. 15171/2010) and that filed by the QPMPA (No.16581/2010) were taken up for hearing on 7.06.2010 -- two months earlier than propagated by the IMA through its letter dated 14.5.2010 in the Vacation Court. http://www.qpmpa.org/news-and-events/9-drug-licence-case/36-ima-vs-qpmpa-part-2-ima-letters-in-may-2010.html
The Kerala IMA took pains to meet the Health Minister and implement a minutes to trap the Private hospitals and that achievement is in http://www.qpmpa.org/news-and-events/9-drug-licence-case/37-ima-vs-qpmpa-part-3-minutes.html
that followed is in IMA vs QPMPA - Part 4 - Emails in News & Events Tab.
To find out the motives of the IMA Kerala in Drug Licence case — Click News & Events - Drug licence - IMA vs. QPMPA Part 5 - The double role by IMA -- http://www.qpmpa.org/news-and-events/9-drug-licence-case/39-ima-vs-qpmpa-part-5-the-double-role-of-ima.html