State radiologists threaten to stop pregnancy sonography altogether

In face of governments alleged harassment of doctors, state-level meeting of radiologists to be held in city's B J Medical College tomorrow to decide course of action

Angered by the successive raids and sealing of sonography centres across many cities in the state over allegations of sex-selective tests and abortions, radiologists across the state have now threatened to completely ban sonography for pregnancy.There has been a statewide crackdown on sonography and abortion clinics in recent days, after the shocking discovery of nine female foetuses in a drain in Beed district. The state showed urgency in the crackdown on female foeticide as the incident came on the heels of the recent Census report that showed the sex ratio had worsened in state in the last decade.


Don't target us: Radiologists say while they are all for prevention of
female foeticide, some officials are harassing doctors just because they
need to show they are acting against the malpractice. Representation pic

But radiologists across the state are angry as they feel they are being harassed by overenthusiastic government officials keen to show "some action" taking place on foeticide."In the last few days, a lot of raids took place and many of them were not done correctly. We are not against the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, nor do we want that errant doctors be left out. But in some cases, doctors are genuinely being harassed because officials have to show that they are doing work," said Dr Jignesh Thakker, general secretary of the Indian Radiological and Imaging Association (IRIA). "Some doctors have come to us with proof that their clinics were sealed just because they entered an incorrect pin code or forgot to take the patient's mobile number. Is this reason to seal a clinic?"

Tomorrow, IRIA has organised a state-level meeting of radiologists at the B J Medical College in the city to discuss the issue of harassment of doctors and the future course of action to be followed.
"We are definitely going to strike if the unreasonable action continues. In fact, we are contemplating to stop doing obstetric pregnancy. It is just a small part of our daily practice and if our clinics are getting sealed for conducting pregnancy sonography, it is better we stop doing it completely," said Thakker.

The association has started reporting errant doctors on their own to the state government and is surprised at the allegations of harassment."We have on our own reported many suspected cases from Pune, Nagpur, Beed, Pardi, Nashik, Khamgaon, Mumbai, among other places. We suspect that these clinics do conduct sex-selective tests and that's why we want the state to do a sting and gather evidence," said Dr Dilip Lakhkar, radiologist from the city. IRIA has submitted a list of four to five ultrasound clinics from the city that it suspects are involved in female foeticide.