Doctors Association Kashmir has urged J&K government for ban on private practice saying that it is taking a heavy toll on is on patient care.
DAK President had said the greatest casualty of private practice is patient care. “
Doctors spend most of their time in private clinics and are not available for patients in government hospitals. Their attention and time is directed towards their private clinics,” he said.
The DAK President said patients in government hospitals are left to the mercy of trainees who lack expertise to handle complicated cases and some patients even die of misdiagnosis or delayed intervention due to non-availability of senior doctors who most of the times are in their private clinics.
He said doctors use public hospitals as recruiting grounds for their private practice and orchestrate scenarios to generate business for their clinics.
He said that the dual practice creates pervasive incentives for doctors to increase waiting time in government hospitals so that patients are forced to go to private hospitals. Some, Doctors misuse hospital facilities for their private patients at the cost of poor patients who have no resources to attend private clinics.
General Secretary DAK said private practice has hollowed our health institutions which not only are crucial life-saving assets, but also full-time centers for medical education and research.
Spokesperson DAK said various committees from time to time have stressed that private practice should be banned. NMC puts bar on private practice in all health institutions,” he said adding that even the courts have observed that academic character of health institutions gets damaged and profession of healthcare gets affected by private practice.