The Rajkot Municipal Corporation has made the Act effective from January this week. Officials say, henceforth, the body would certify only those doctors for practice, who hold registration certificates from the state government and comply with the terms of bio-medical waste management. They say the registration process would weed out the quacks. As far as qualified doctors are concerned, those who fail to go with the new registration process by the end of February would have to pay a penalty of Rs 5,000, they say.

The registration effectively covers threes faculties -- allopathic, ayuervedic and homeopathic system of treatment.

Dr Jaiman Upadhyay, RMC standing committee chairman and a general physician says, “Around 20,000 doctors, including all three medical faculties, practise in Rajkot. On the first day of registration on Thursday, over 80 doctors have come forward.”

Dr Upadhyay says the Nursing Home Act mainly applies to nursing homes and specialty hospitals, rather than clinics. But the RMC, after approval from the state government's health department, has also made the registration mandatory for general practitioners.

“This is a very welcoming step which would benefit both patients and doctors. The residents can now easily know that doctor they visit is qualified. And, for the doctors' fraternity, it would help to keep a check on quacks,” says Manish Gosai, president of the Indian Medical Association, Rajkot chapter.

According to Dr Upadhyay, the nuisance of quacks exists as much in the urban area as in the rural. As such, a mandatory registration, even for general physicians, is a step forward towards curbing quack practices.

The implementation of the Act has also given the RMC reasons to cheer. The local body would get on hand information about the birth and death details before a family approaches the local body for the respective certificate.

“So far the RMC was getting the day-to-day health-related figures of government hospitals only. But, as per the act, all the registered doctors are now supposed to submit a patient's log on every day to the RMC,” says Dr Upadhyay.

According to him, the availability of such data would help in identifying an epidemic pattern at an early phase. Conducting a city-specific research also becomes a lot easier.