Yes. The Kerala State Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission presiding members

M.K. Abdulla Sona and A. Radha has recently directed the Travancore-Cochin

Medical Councils-Kerala (TCMC-K) to instruct all doctors to display their medical council registration numbers on their signboards and quote the register numbers in all prescriptions and all case sheets. The case involved of a petition by a woman patient who had sought Rs.1 crore compensation for a faulty surgery at a Thiruvananthapuram hospital.

The commission said that using the registration number in the doctors’ prescriptions, case-sheets and signboards would help patients to get all information about the doctor including their competency and possessed the required qualifications. The commission said that the patient/consumer has the right to know the details of each doctor who accompanied the leader of the surgical team, including the anesthesiologist. Any denial of this would be considered a deficiency of service and an unfair trade practice under the provisions of the Consumer Protection Act.