Bengal govt restores rights of DMS, DMHS doctors to issue birth and death certificates

Kolkata: West Bengal's Health Department has restored the authority of Diploma in Medicine and Surgery (DMS) and Diploma in Homeopathic Medicine and Surgery (DHMS) practitioners to issue birth and death certificates following widespread protests by members of the two medical streams.

The state health department has already issued a notification in this regard.

The notification was issued after hundreds of DMS and DHMS doctors, under different associations, staged protests in front of Swasthya Bhaban, the state health department headquarters, at Salt Lake in the northern outskirts of Kolkata on Wednesday.

They also submitted a memorandum in support of their demands to the officials of the state health department.

According to sources, DMS doctors were first granted the authority to issue birth and death certificates in 1964. Although the right was withdrawn following the introduction of the DHMS course, it was restored in 1999 after a prolonged movement by DMS and DHMS practitioners.

However, a gazette notification issued by the state health department on July 9 this year again revoked these powers, triggering strong protests across the state.

The protesting doctors argued that practitioners holding DMS and DHMS qualifications had been included in the Second Schedule after years of agitation and were legally entitled to issue such certificates. They termed the July notification unfair, unreasonable and undemocratic.

“Currently there are 34,000 DMS and DHMS doctors in West Bengal. The July notification from the state health department pushed their future into grave uncertainty. People started doubting our professional credibility. In fact, residents of remote areas, where DMS and DHMS practitioners play a crucial role in healthcare delivery, faced difficulties following the withdrawal of these rights. Now, as the state government has restored these rights, this development has come as a victory for us,” said an office bearer of the Medical Service Centre, the association leading the movement.

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