Doctors in Maharashtra who have breached their mandatory bond to serve in rural healthcare facilities will be barred from practising medicine for a short period or even permanently.
A notification issued by Directorate of Medical Education Research (DMER) on Thursday said the evasion of bonded service will be treated as a misconduct and unethical behaviour. The doctors who are found guilty will face action under Medical Council Act, 1965, and could end up losing their registration as a medical practitioner. The doctors applying for renewal of their registrations by the Maharashtra Medical Council (MMC) will have to furnish their 'bond-free' certificate.
"If [the] certificate is not produced then the MMC is instructed not to renew registration and such unregistered medical practitioners will be treated as bogus doctors and they are liable for necessary action as per the Maharashtra Medical Profession Act, 1961 by the MMC," read the DMER notification.
The bond service was introduced to mitigate the shortage of doctors in rural, tribal and hilly areas. The students seeking admission to government-run medical and dental hospitals are required to sign this bond.
Medical and dental graduates, post-graduates and super specialty students from government-run medical colleges are required to spend a year at a state-run rural health care centre after writing the final exam. The students who don’t do so must pay a fine of Rs15 lakh, Rs50 lakh and Rs2.5 crore, respectively.
However, many of these students manage to dodge the bonded service without paying the fines.
In January, the state government had issued a circular declaring non-completion of Bond service as a misconduct.