Straight from the heart: IMA Road Map

Straight from the heart: IMA Road Map

The main objective of IMA is to provide affordable, available, accessible and accountable quality and safe health care to the public through its members in a stress-free environment.

IMA works hand in hand with the central and state governments to achieve its objectives via profession- and community-friendly policies.

One of the objectives of IMA is to concentrate on primary, preventive and primordial care.  In this regard IMA has launched many campaigns like:  Sun to Lo, Dekh to lo, Koi Dekh to Nahi Raha, Koi Sun to Nahi Raha, Baar Baar Pucho, Puchna Mat Bhulo, Woh to Theek Hai par Mara Kyon, Woh to Theek Hai par Heart Attack Hua Kyon, Katwayega to Nahi, among others.

IMA is also incorporating social determinants of health in providing medical care.  IMA Project Jiska Koi Nahi Uska IMA provides avenues to patients from every segment of the society in getting cost-effective treatment within their reach and within the same environment where he/she is residing.

IMA has helped achieve millennium development goals and now is committed to achieve sustainable development goals.

IMA Road Map

·         IMA believes in patient-centric medicine where the treatment plan is adjusted to the needs of the patient on case to case basis.

·         IMA is fighting with government for one price-one drug-one company policy so that cost of 80% of medicine can be reduced. Today 80% cost of health care is on medicines and investigations.

·         IMA policy is to prescribe NLEM drugs and when writing non NLEM drugs, to take consent from the patient.

·         IMA members are implementing all national health programs. But, for the same, government should hire every general practitioner on retainership basis.

·         IMA wants 100% PG seats so that every doctor who does MBBS is ensured a PG Seat and those seats where Indian doctors opt out can be allotted to foreigners. Most of the new PG seats should be in Family Medicine.

·         IMA is for providing all emergent services to people, which is the mandate of state government who is not able to provide it. Hence, this should be reimbursed by state governments. 

·         IMA is not against accountability but is against the people taking law in their hands.  IMA wants single window accountability for the same.

·         IMA also want Single Window Registration for any health care facility.

·         IMA also wants Single Registration for doctors so that they can practice in any state in the country.

·         Medical profession is not a business and all doctors provide reasonable subsidy to their patients for which they are entitled to non-commercial rates for water, electric, property and and other amenities.

·         IMA respects Ayush doctors and the government should let them excel in their own field and not diversify into the modern system of medicine.

·         IMA believes in the concept of equity, equality and justice. To this end, IMA wants uniform age of retirement, uniform pay scale, uniform infrastructure, uniform hours of duty, etc.

·         IMA is for bringing preventable deaths to zero. Preventable deaths should be unacceptable. To achieve this, IMA recommends auditing every preventable death to find what went wrong so that another such death can be prevented by timely action.

·         IMA wants professional autonomy and for the doctors to be able to decide their drug, investigation and line of management based on patient-centric medicine. 

·         IMA is for competence-based training and not theoretical-based training.

·         IMA is against repeated multiple theoretical exams for doctors to test their updated knowledge status.

·         IMA wants all doctors to use petrol cars, car pool, grow grass in muddy areas, plant trees and promote walking as their contributions in efforts to reduce air pollution.

·         All IMA CMEs should be noise-free with noise levels between 45-50 dB.

·         The average life span of doctors is 10-13 years shorter than non-doctors. IMA recommends all doctors to have their annual check-up done and get 100% vaccinated.

·         The cost of intensive care is beyond reach of a common man. It’s the state government mandate to provide free emergency care. If they cannot, ICU establishment costs should be subsidized by the government.

·         All IMA CMEs should have a slide each on pharmacovigilance, bioethics and AMR.

·         IMA policy is to spend time on informing patient about the cost of treatment. The cost variation should not be more than 10%.

·         IMA policy is to promote GTN in TB (GeneXpert test, trace every contact and notify TB).

·         Even the dead have a right to dignity. All dead bodies, whether in the dissection hall or in the hospital settings, must be respected

·         To build credibility, all doctors should explain the reason if they are referring a patient to a specific lab, imaging center, pharmacy or a hospital.