Med Council bars 57 docs with bogus documents from practice

The Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC), in its biggest-ever crackdown to curb the menace of bogus doctors across Maharashtra, has suspended 57 doctors across the state for submitting fake additional qualification degrees for registration. Having earlier received several complaints about bogus doctors, the MMC had started a drive to inspect documents submitted by doctors.

In the latest action, the council has banned 57 doctors with bogus degrees from practice. Seven Mumbai doctors have been barred from practising for five years and another 50, also from the city, barred for a year, for allegedly submitting fake postgraduate diploma certificates and fellowships from the College of Physicians and Surgeons (CPS).

The doctors banned for five years have been identified as Priyanka Bhagat, Mayank Sharma, Vipul Kumar Patel, Suchita Goyal, Rekha R, Natasha Char, and Bandana Kumar.

MMC president, Dr Shivkumar Uttare, confirmed the punishments handed out to the doctors. “Our probe revealed that 77 doctors had submitted fake CPS certificates, of whom 20 were suspended a few months ago. The seven doctors handed five-year bans did not bother to attend the final hearing and we have taken stringent action against them as per the medical council guidelines. The rest have given written assurances and were handed one-year bans,” Uttare said.