DAK terns it root cause of ‘health care mess’
Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said that the private practice by government doctors in Jammu and Kashmir particularly in teaching hospitals has badly hit patient care.
Calling for complete ban on private practice, President DAK Dr Nisar ul Hassan in a statement said that it is the root cause of healthcare mess and patients suffer the consequences.
“It is ironical that full-time government doctors are allowed to run private clinics depriving poor and underprivileged of essential health care,” Dr Hassan said in a statement issued here. “Under the provisions of service rules, doctors are not permitted to indulge in private practice, yet they are allowed, which has resulted in deterioration of services they are required to render to people.”
MCI puts a bar on private practice of doctors in all medical institutions which not only are crucial life saving assets but full time centers for medical education and research.
“Private practice of government doctors was banned by State High Court in a Public Interest Litigation on November 8, 2011 and therefore it is illegal to allow doctors to do private practice,” he said. “The menace of private practice has eaten away our health institutions and is responsible for rising corruption in health and medical education.”
There is misuse of hospital facilities like out of turn admissions and surgeries for private patients in government hospitals and poor patients who cannot afford private consultations suffer.
Also this dual practice creates a pervasive incentive for doctors to increase waiting times in government hospitals so that patients are forced to go to private hospitals.
The previous attempts to ban private practice have been stalled by a strong lobby and they have misled past regimens on this issue.
If present dispensation is serious to revive the health sector and mitigate the sufferings of poor people, it should immediately ban private practice of government doctors particularly in teaching hospitals.
