Jammu and Kashmir government are likely to ban doctors’ private practice in the Medical Colleges of UT, Officials privy to the development revealed Wednesday.
The development comes close on the heels of recommendations of medical experts constituted on the directions of the High Court that had strongly advocated a blanket ban on private practice of doctors in J&K in the interest of patient care.
“We are well aware of the fact that private practice of senior and middle-rung doctors is taking a big hit to patient care across the UT. Therefore, it is most likely that we will start with banning the private practice in medical colleges of UT first. A meeting will be held to discuss the issue in a few days,” a senior officer in the Health department told a news agency.
Experts said that many doctors, despite getting handsome salaries, still go for private practice and take the share of the unemployed doctors who neither have a place in Private nor in the Government sector.
“Those doctors are forced to leave for other states in search of jobs,” said an expert, wishing not to be named. “The teaching of MBBS students and the Postgraduate students by the faculty in the Medical Colleges of Jammu and Kashmir and the quality of patient care has deteriorated due to doctors’ main interest in private practice.” Another expert pleading anonymity said that patient care would improve only if the government announced a blanket ban on the private practice of doctors.
“Ban on the private practice by the doctors will encourage the establishment of Private clinics and corporate hospitals in rural areas of the union territory and shall play a great role in providing medical facilities to the patients in remote areas who otherwise have to run to cities for treatment,” he said.
He said that on average, a doctor in GMC performs just two to three operations in a week, and the same doctor may do eight to ten operations in Private nursing homes in just a few hours. “There is mushrooming of private hospitals run by government doctors, and more patients are treated at private hospitals nowadays,” the expert said. “By indulging in Private practice, the government doctors get overburdened, and this affects the quality of services provided to the patients as well as the mental and physical health of the doctors who don’t get enough time for themselves to relax.”
Doctors association President Dr Nisar Ul Hassan said that doctors’ private practice is taking a heavy toll on patient care, medical research, and education.
“Most of our doctors spent their time in private hospitals, and very little time is being given on medical education and research due to which we are unable to produce quality doctors,” he said. “Government doctor is government servant for all the 24 hours of the day and permitting private practice is bound to affect the discharge of official duties of government doctors.” He said that it is ironic that full-time government doctors are allowed to run private hospitals because poor and underprivileged people suffer and deserve better care and can’t afford to go to private hospitals.
“There should be complete segregation of sectors like those who want to work in the private sector, they should be allowed to go, and new doctors should be recruited who will work only in medical colleges,” he said, adding that “doctors use government hospitals as recruiting grounds for their private practice and patients have to wait for months together to get their turn at government hospitals which delays treatment and they are forced to go to private clinics.”
