IMA Mumbai West Indian Medical Association – Mumbai West ,IMA BUILDING,JUHU, J R MHATRE MARG, MUMBAI 400049

 

Dear Fellow Members,

 

Seasons Greetings to you all.

 

Friends as you all know the IMA MS PPS ( IMA Maharashtra State Professional Protection Scheme) was started on 1^st July 2008 that is Doctor’s day. We are very glad to inform you that the response from the members has been very encouraging we have enrolled around 270 members till date and the membership is increasing by the day.

 

I would like to bring to your notice some of the highlights of the PPS.

 

Why at all there arose a need for the IMA to start its own PPS?

 

1. As we all know that most of us are insured with some or the other insurance companies or some other private agencies like Apex for our indemnity cover.
2. These companies only take care of your financial part of the litigation.
3. They are not bothered about what will happens to the reputation of the doctor who is undergoing litigation.
4. These companies are very eager to do an out of the court settlement with the complainant hence giving the impression that the doctor is at fault.
5. The lawyers provided by these companies are not expert in dealing with the medical negligence cases. In all the cases the onus of providing expert opinion is on the doctor.
6. Most of the doctors who had an experience with insurance company would agree that their services were far from satisfactory.

 

Looking at all these things and to make matters easy for the IMA members this novel scheme was started in the State of Kerala and to tell you the success story.  Kerala state had a litigation rate of 30 to 40% against the doctors. As the scheme became popular and more and more members enrolled in the scheme the State PPS started fighting the cases on behalf of the doctors. Now the present story is that the litigation rate has come down to around 10% because the scheme is not ready to make an out of court settlement and fights the case till supreme court. The effect of this was that all the Doctors in Kerala are members of IMA and also members of PPS.

 

Similarly Gujarat State PPS is also very successful. There are 8000 members of the Gujarat state. Due to the overwhelming popularity of the scheme the first 6000 members in Gujarat state don’t have to pay any premium for their cover with the scheme.

 

There is a National PPS scheme also which operates from Kerala the advantage of this scheme is that one can buy multiple units of cover in this scheme. At the time of award of compensation more and the cover with the state scheme is not sufficient the both the schemes can work together and settle the claim.

 

What is the PPS Scheme?

 

1. This is a Professional Protection Scheme Started by IMA Maharashtra State Branch for the benefit of its members.
2. All the members of IMA Maharashtra can enroll in this scheme. Before the first renewal the Member must become a life Member of IMA.
3. A member can enroll in the scheme by paying a requisite amount of admission fee(One time) and an annual fee which will be payable every year. The fee depends upon the specialty of the member and number of beds in the hospital. The fee is to be payable by a D.D. in favor of IMA MS PPS payable at Nagpur.
4. The cover of the member Starts from the 1^st of the next month and the renewal will be on 1^st of April every year.

 

What will the scheme do for its Members?

 

1. Provide legal defense in civil/criminal cases before the medical councils, consumer redressal fora and courts.
2. Provide reasonable expenses for bail.
3. Pay fine with in prescribed limits.
4. Pay the settlement arising out of civil or consumer protection act within prescribed limits.

 

Has the scheme had any cases against any of its members?

 

Yes the scheme did have four cases against its members and in all the cases a proper legal course was advised to the member and all the members were satisfied.

 

Till now the response to the scheme has been very good. Looking at the benefit this scheme provides, we appeal to all the members to enroll in this scheme.

 

Finally we appeal to all to help IMA movement grow by enrolling yourself as members of PPS

 

Dr. Krishna Parate           9823050572         Chairman IMA MS PP

 

Dr. Anand Kate                `              9822278590         Co-Chairman IMA MS PPS.