Draft salient decisions taken by the IMA Central Working Committee

Draft salient decisions taken by the IMA Central Working Committee At its recently convened 218th meeting held on September 23-24, 2017, New Delhi, the Central Working Committee of IMA took some salient decisions on various issues pertaining to the medical profession and the Association. Part 1 of the draft salient decisions is as below: • While paying rich tributes to Dr VCV Pillai, Past National President IMA, who passed away on August 1, 2017, the following resolutions were passed by the House as a mark of respect to the departed soul: o All National Past Presidents of IMA shall be given National Honor after their soul leaves their physical body. o IMA Flag to fly at half-mast from the day of demise till the day of last rites. o All members of IMA to observe 2-minute silence at the time of last rites of departed National Presidents o “Dr VCV Pillai Memorial Annual Address” shall be delivered at the ensuing Installation ceremony on 28th December, 2017 at Mumbai, Maharashtra as a part of the IMA Foundation Day o IMA has launched a National Program “Physician’s health first”, in the memory of Dr VCV Pillai. And, the period 30th July to 5th September every year shall be observed as a period for medical check-ups of all IMA members. • The matter related to acceptance of IMA demands by the Government was discussed at length. After discussions and deliberations, it was decided that all State Branches of IMA shall observe “Dawn to Dusk Fast” from 6am to 6 pm on October 2, 2017 at a prominent location in their area, in a non- violent structured manner, preferably in front/near a statute of Mahatma Gandhi or his photograph. All local branches shall organize: o Special General Body Meetings in accordance with their constitutional quorum at the above designated place any time during 2nd October, 2017. o Shall pass the following resolution and post and email that resolution along with a letter to Hon’ble Prime Minister of India (Letter template will be finalized and sent to the States and local Branches by IMA HQs. soon) with a copy to Chief Minister of their respective State/Local Administrative Head: Resolution All ______ (Number of members of your Branch) doctors of ______ (Branch name) of ______ (State name) hereby resolved on 2nd October, 2017 that the time has come for the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India to intervene to resolve the following issues faced by the medical professionals in the community effecting the community health on priority: 1. Central Act to tackle violence against medical profession 2. De-linking penal provisions against doctors for minor clerical errors in act like PCPNDT etc. 3. Timely amendments in agreed changes in Clinical Establishments Act and PC PNDT Act 4. Capping of compensation in cases of medical negligence 5. Withdrawal of National Medical Council Bill & EXIT proposal (NEXT) • All state and local branches are directed to make an official email ID starting with “ima.” followed by State / Branch name. The password credentials of the same should be shared between the President and Honorary Secretary of the State/local branch with a copy to IMA Headquarters. The mobile number linked to this email id shall be that of the Secretary of the State / local branch. This official email ID of the branch shall not change with the change of office bearers. The official IDs of IMA Headquarters are np@ima-india.org and hsg@ima-india.org. • Any official WhatsApp Groups of IMA Wings / Schemes / State / Local Branches can be created by the respective Honorary Secretary as the Group Admin having the name of the respective IMA Wing / Scheme / State / Local Branch only on the approval of the IMA HQs. Only such groups can use the patented IMA logo and include the “IMA” word in their names. • All state and local branches shall use the patented IMA Logo to be made available on the website of IMA with only the specified color, design and specifications. • Only IMA HQs can appoint Professors as per the laid down policy in this regard. No Wing / Scheme / Branch can appoint IMA Professors. • All IMA Wings / Schemes / State / Local Branches can organize IMA CMEs only as per laid down policy by IMA HQs. Accreditation Council and IMA credit hours shall be issued only by IMA head-quarters. The charges for the same are available in the IMA Accreditation Policy as available on the website of IMA. • IMA HEAD QUARTERS shall start a new journal by the name “IMA Journal”, which will be the mouthpiece of IMA. The first issue of the same shall be inaugurated at the ensuing 76th meeting of the Central Council of IMA and NATCON-2017. The online version of the same shall be managed by IMA HQs. • Starting from December 2017, the IMA News shall run into 100 pages. All State Branches of IMA shall be allotted 2 pages in all the issues, in which they shall cover all the important news and information about their activities and schemes etc. since the last issue. • Publication of JIMA, the official Journal of the Indian Medical Association o It was decided that the IMA JIMA Outsourcing Committee will continue to explore its options to outsource JIMA. o For the next 3 months, JIMA will continue to be printed and published at Kolkata under direct supervision of Hony Secretary General & Hony Finance Secretary of IMA HQs. o The Editorial Board will be under the direct supervision of National President, Honorary Secretary General, Honorary Finance Secretary and following five members nominated by the National President, namely National President (Elect), Dr Ravi Wankhedkar, Past National Presidents, Dr Vinay Aggarwal, Dr Ajay Kumar, Dr Sudipto Roy & Dr A Marthanda Pillai. o A minimum of 10,000 copies of good quality of JIMA shall be printed by the JIMA office at Kolkata during this period of 3 months and rest of the circulation will depend on the money raised by JIMA for each month of publication JIMA. o No funds to be provided by IMA for the same and no Investments to be utilized either. o As regards the excess of expenditure over income by JIMA office for publication of the last few issues of the publication, internal audit of JIMA accounts will be done by IMA HQs which shall ascertain and submit its report as to how JIMA has published 1.5 lakh copies with an excess of expenditure over its income. The loss will not be incurred by headquarters. o Online version of JIMA will be managed by IMA Kerala State Branch. JIMA office to provide them necessary softcopies in open formats for every issue well within time and also the JIMA website credentials for uploading and maintaining the JIMA issues. • IMA Headquarters to investigate the existence of the IMA e-Varsity. If the same is found to be prevalent, procedures to be initiated by the IMA HQs. to merge the same with IMA Headquarters. • Honorary Director, IMA AKN Sinha Institute for the year 2017-2018, Dr Rajan Sharma shall get in touch with the concerned office bearers of all the Wings and schemes of IMA and proposes the modalities of a package system for members desirous of subscribing to all the Wings and schemes IMA in one go. The same to be completed and submitted to the IMA HQs office before the ensuing 76th meeting of the Central Council of IMA so that the same can be placed before it for necessary ratification. • In order to promote the various IMA Wings and schemes, it was approved that all candidates contesting Elections to various posts of IMA HQs and its Wings as per the Memorandum, Rules and Bye-Laws of the Association, must be a member of all the schemes and relevant Wings of IMA in addition to the existing pre-requisites for the relevant posts. Necessary additions be made in the Memorandum, Rules and Bye-Laws of the Indian Medical Association accordingly. This shall be made applicable from the next Elections of IMA HQs and its Wings. • IMA HQs to investigate the complaint of a CWC member on the floor of the House, during the recently convened 218th meeting of the CWC regarding the running of two parallel IMA CGP Faculties / Sub Faculties in the city of Hyderabad, Telangana. The IMA HQs has been authorized to take necessary action as required in this regard. • All wings of IMA as included in the Memorandum, Rules and Bye-Laws of IMA, to have elected office bearers from this year. • The Chairman and Secretary of the IMA Medical Students’ Network and IMA Junior Doctors’ Network shall be included in the composition of IMA CWC and Central Council (CC) and shall be eligible to attend their respective meetings in addition to the other official meetings of IMA. • NATCON shall be hosted by a state and co-hosted by all other states. All states shall contribute Rupees one lakh each to the “IMA NATCON Fund” to be maintained at IMA HQs. The Fund so collected by the IMA HQs. shall be used for hosting the dinner/ banquet/ awards ceremony. Henceforth, all the audited accounts of the NATCON shall be provided by the organizers to the IMA HQs. who shall display the same on the IMA Website. • Only IMA HQs. shall endorse all health claim statements, as per laid down policy in this regard, which involves inviting expressions of interest. No IMA Wing / Scheme / State / Local Branch can endorse any health claim statement / product. • Existing IMA Blood Donations Policy shall now be IMA Blood Component Policy and linked to blood components • As a part of IMA Organ Donation initiative at least 25,000 IMA members should pledge their organs latest by 27th November, 2017. IMA HQs. to take necessary steps to ensure the same. (To be contd.) Dr KK Aggarwal Dr RN Tandon National President IMA Hony Secy General IMA

A must-watch IMA event

A must-watch IMA event The Central Working Committee (CWC) of IMA is meeting today at Hotel The Grand, Vasant Kunj in New Delhi. It is a residential event for members of CWC with a continuous live webcast on IMA website for non CWC members at http://ima-india.org/imalive/ 2-5 PM Saturday and 10-2 PM Sunday. Celebrations of centenary year of medical conferences in India will be observed simultaneously with the 218th CWC Meeting. One of the issues that will be discussed among other such issues of concern to the medical fraternity is “Is the time ripe to shift from non-violence way of protest?” Drafting of Restoration guidelines is another issue on the agenda. For every 1000 members there is one CWC member elected by the IMA state branch. They form the lower house of IMA and recommends all the policies. The CWC forms the IMA upper house. Local branches select one CC member for every 100 members. This is the supreme body of IMA. Though policy suggestions can be sent by individual members, it is always better to bring resolutions through the states via state CWC members. All suggestions of states and branches should be routed through CWC.

Celebrate the centenary year of IMA’s All India Medical Conference: Wear Khadi

Celebrate the centenary year of IMA’s All India Medical Conference: Wear Khadi In September this year, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) will hold the 218th meeting of its Central Working Committee (CWC) in New Delhi. This year also marks the 100 years of IMA’s All India Medical Conference, the first of which was held at Calcutta in 1917. The concept of IMA was born out of these conferences in response to a need of a national organization of doctors. A resolution adopted at the 5th All India Medical conference held at Calcutta in the year1928 led to the formation of an All India Medical Association. The objectives were to improve medical education, promote medical and allied sciences in their different branches and safeguard interests of the medical profession. The All Indian Medical Association and the body were duly registered in the year 1930 under the Societies Registration Act, XXI of 1860. At its inception, the Association had only 222 members. But since then it has only grown from strength to strength. Today, IMA has more than 2.5 lakh doctors as its members through more than 1765 active local branches spread across the country. It is the only national voluntary organization representing the collective consciousness of doctors of modern scientific system of medicine in the country, with its Headquarters in New Delhi. This is also a time to remember the struggles and sacrifices of the founding members, both before and post-independence, not only in the formation of the Association, but also for the independence of our country as many of the stalwarts of the medical profession in those days had also served time in jail for their participation in India’s freedom movement. In this centenary year of the All India Medical Conference, we can pay our tribute to our founding fathers by promoting our national heritage. Khadi is one way by which we can do this. It is not merely a piece of fabric, khadi is a powerful symbol of “self-rule” and “self-reliance” of the freedom movement propagated by Mahatma Gandhi as a means to boycott the British textiles. Khadi is made of natural fiber and is non-allergenic; it keeps the body cool as it allows better air circulation with less sweating. Being hand woven and hand spun makes it environment-friendly. By virtue of these properties, does khadi prevent skin infections? This can be a subject of research. All of us should consider wearing Khadi voluntarily, and include it in our daily wear, as much as possible. And, I request all members to wear a ‘Khadi apron’, particularly during the centenary celebrations. And, also on 2nd October, when all doctors of modern medicine in the country will undertake a dawn to dusk fast in continuation of our Dilli Chalo movement. This initiative will be a good way to not only honor our cultural heritage, but also preserve this invaluable legacy and carry it forward. Also, by wearing khadi, doctors can make their contribution in empowering khadi weavers. Wear Khadi with flair, wear khadi with pride…

National Black Day on April 27

National Black Day on April 27 Dear Colleague The 217th CWC at Kolkata has condemned and opposed the West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act 2017. The hostility displayed by this Act on doctors, health care workers and the hospitals is unacceptable. All the state branches unanimously decided to voice their concern regarding the national repercussions of the Act. The Central Working Committee dedicated the major part of its sitting to this issue and closed sine die hours before schedule in protest. The CWC also decided to observe a National Black Day on Thursday 27.04 .2017. Accordingly, all the state branches are hereby directed to inform all their members through their local branches to observe the National Black Day on 27. 04. 2017 against the West Bengal CEA. The observation shall be a peaceful demonstration of our solidarity with the suffering doctors of West Bengal. The following actions may be taken up at state and local branches level: - 1. Black badges to be worn by all members. 2. All hospitals and clinics to display black cloth in their notice board with explanation. 3. All state branches to send uniformly formatted email opposing the Act to the Chief Minister of West Bengal. 4. The details of the Act to be communicated to all members during a protest meeting/executive of the local branch. 5. Signature campaign: An All India signature campaign to be started. Each State to mobilise maximum number of signatures with credible e mail IDs and address details. The petition must be addressed to the Chief Minister of West Bengal. A copy may be retained at the state branch. A Xerox copy may be sent to IMA HQs. 6. A social media signature campaign is to be initiated from IMA HQs. The state branches may facilitate this initiative. 7. A state level press conference should be conducted by all state branches giving details and repercussions of this Act on the Health of the Nation.