Prof Narendra Nayak’s open letter to the president of Karnataka Medical Council

Prof Narendra Nayak’s open letter to the president of Karnataka Medical Council

From: Narendra Nayak
101, Noel Park, Microwave station road
Mangalore-575 006

To: The Registrar
Karnataka Medical Council
16/6, Miller Tank Bed area, Vasanthnagar
Bangalore-560 052

Dear Sir,

Sub: Complaint about misconduct by a Medical practitioner Dr Shivananda S Patil

Since his registration number with the KMC is not available to me I am herein adding a snapshot of the board of his clinic.

This complaint is being made in public interest about the endorsement of a particular method run by a commercial undertaking called Efficient Brainy at 1st floor, Sri Laxmi complex, APMC road, Belagavi which is running a program called as Whole brain development program and claiming that for a consideration of Rs 10,000 they can train children between the ages of 4 to 16 to visualize objects without light falling on the retina. This has been claimed in their various pamphlets etc. For publicity of their contention, they are using a video recording allegedly of Dr Shivananda S Patil, MBBS, DOMS, MS of Patil Kannina aspatre, High school Road, Gokak-591307. A copy of the CD with the recording of a video is attached to this complaint. This recording is being used by this commercial undertaking as their publicity material to make parents join their children to what they call as WHOLE BRAIN TRAINING AND SUPERSENSORY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM. In the video, Dr Shivananda S Patil conducts allegedly tests of vision on a child whose name is not known but apparently is a minor. He also announces that the child is capable of seeing without any light from the object falling on the retina. He also endorses their methodology and claims that they have discovered means of making children see without light falling on the retina.(copy of the CD of his video is enclosed along with this complaint)

Provisions of the section of the code of ethics for medical practitioners is reproduced below from your website:

7.7 Signing Professional Certificates, Reports and other Documents:
Registered medical practitioners are in certain cases bound by law to give, or may from time to time be called upon or requested to give certificates, notification, reports and other documents of similar by them in their professional capacity for subsequent use in the courts or for administrative purposes etc. Such documents, among others, include the ones given at Appendix-4. Any registered practitioner who is shown to have signed or given under his name and authority any such certificate, notification, report or document of a similar character which is untrue, misleading or improper, is liable to have his name deleted from the Register.

So, under these regulations, the name of Dr Shivananda S Patil MS, DOMS of Patil Kannina Aspatre, High school road, Gokak should be struck off the medical register for having given under his name a video(copy enclosed) certifying methodology which is untrue, misleading and improper. So, I request you to kindly take action against the above named Dr.Shivananda S Patil.

Mangalore
21st November, 2017
(Narendra Nayak)

Enclosed: copy of CD of the video of Dr Shivananda S Patil

Note this is the link to the video.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29hbBwcRT-0&feature=youtu.be.

This is their reply received on 8th February

I have already addressed a communication to the Karnataka Medical Council requesting for copies of the explanation and documents submitted by Dr Shivananda Patil yesterday.

This is my open letter to the president of the Karnataka Medical Council Dr H Veerabhadrappa

Dear Dr H Veerabhadrappa,

Greetings. In these days when there are attacks against members of the medical profession on various grounds some of them justified while many are not, It is to be expected that the State Medical councils being statutory bodies will uphold medical ethics and will be shining beacon to the society at large about such matters by bringing errant members of the profession to book.

With such high hopes, I had complained to you on the 21st November 2017 about the unethical behaviour of one Dr Shivananda Patil MS (Ophthalmology) a qualified trained professional registered with you. He had certified that he had personally examined, tested and verified the claims of one Efficient Brainy who had claimed to have devised a method by which children could see without light falling on the retina. A copy of the said video on youtube which can be considered as an advertisement, unethical behaviour and professional misconduct was handed over to you along with my complaint registered as re62Exp/Doct/2017. The link to the you tube video is here if you would like to see it again. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29hbBwcRT-0&feature=youtu.be. In this, he is clearly heard saying in Kannada that ‘the boy can see without light falling on the retina’.

But you have not even conducted an enquiry into it but closed the case with a bald one-liner passing an order that the concerned Dr Patil had appeared before the council with explanations along with documents. I do hope that you will kindly enlighten the public of Karnataka and the world at large about the explanation offered because it is going to be a Nobel prize-winning discovery that a human being can see without light falling on the retina and you have found it to be correct. Perhaps you too could be made one of the co-recipients of the award. Let me bring to your kind attention that the assertion of this Dr Patil had upset the ophthalmologists so much that the President of the Karnataka Ophthalmic Society had gone to the media with a statement that he was wrong. Even Dr C. R.Kamath, one of the senior most ophthalmologists in the country and the teacher of Dr Patil was forced to say that in a press conference.

I request you to kindly respond to this letter in the media so that the public would know as to whether it is possible to see without light falling on the retina and if it is not possible why such a statement from a doctor registered with you has been supported by you since no action was taken against him.

Yours truly
Narendra Nayak
President, Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations