THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Medical Council of India (MCI) has cancelled the registration of 10 doctors who posed as fake faculty at the Kannur Medical College Hospital during an inspection carried out by the MCI.

The doctors were found originally working with other hospitals and were paraded at the Kannur Medical College Hospital for the head count to cover up the vacancies. Besides cancelling their registrations, the MCI has removed their names from the Indian Medical Records(IMR) for one year. The recommendation of the ethics committee was approved by the executive committee of the MCI.

The ethics committee, which inspected the credentials submitted by the doctors during the inspection, noted: “All of them were guilty of providing wrong and misleading information to the MCI for assessment at the college. The committee was of the unanimous view that their names be removed from IMR for a period one year.”

As a result, they will not be able to use the title ‘doctor’ before their names and cannot undertake medical practice for the next one year. The order issued by the executive committee of the MCI has been given to the registrar of the Travancore Cochin Medical Council (TVMC).

It has become a common practice among private medical colleges to parade doctors from other hospitals during the inspection of the MCI to cover up the vacancies. As per the MCI guidelines doctors who work with other hospitals should not show themselves as working with a different hospital during the inspection.

When the MCI noted that such shameful practices were being followed by private managements, it made it compulsory that the doctors should give a written undertaking during the inspection that they have been working with the hospital, where the inspection was being carried out.

Subsequently, the MCI could identify the doctors who provided wrong and misleading information to the MCI. The MCI had made it clear during the inspection that their registrations will be cancelled if the credentials given were found to be wrong.

Earlier in April, the Supreme Court had ordered the cancellation of admissions of students to the Kannur Medical College Hospital for violating norms.