J&K: Doctors private practices likely to be banned

Srinagar: The Jammu and Kashmir administration is likely to ban private medical practices of doctors in the medical colleges of the Union Territory, the officials revealed on Wednesday. A senior official with the health department had said, "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. It is most likely that we will start with banning the private practice in medical colleges of the UT first. A meeting will be held to discuss the issue in a few days."

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Earlier, a panel of medical experts set up on the direction of Jammu and Kashmir HIgh court had recommended a ban on the private practice of doctors in J&k in the interest of patient care. The committee was formed in 2018 responding to a PIL suggested to assess improvement in the working of medical facilities in J&K, reports the Rising Kashmir.

The panel of medical experts were led by Prof Y.K. Chawla, former Director PGI, Chandigarh. The recommendations read, "It has been observed that faculty of medical colleges who are practicing don't develop research and academics. Therefore, the private practice should be banned in principle." The committee further noted, "To make colleges non-practicing, it is needless to emphasize that the pay scale of faculty should be the same as PGI Chandigarh/AIIMS Delhi. Furthermore, faculty should be given academic leave and incentives."

An expert said that there are many doctors who continue to practice privately despite getting good salaries, eventually taking up the space of unemployed doctors, who are unable to work neither in private nor government sector, as per a media report in the North Lines. An expert stated, "Those doctors are forced to leave for other states in search of jobs, "adding, "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 in the field said that the patient care would improve if the government announce a blanket ban on private practice of doctors. He said, "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 added that a doctor of a government medical college perform two to three operations per week on an average basis, whereas the same doctor might perform eight to ten operations in Private nursing homes within a few hours. He said, "There is mushrooming of private hospitals run by government doctors and more patients are treated at private hospitals nowadays," adding, "By indulging in Private practice, the government doctors get overburdened and this definitely 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."

According to Doctors Association President Dr Nisar Ul Hassan, the private practice of doctors take a heavy toll on patient care, medical research and education. He said, "Most of our doctors spent their time in private hospitals and very less time is being given on medical education and research due to which we are unable to produce quality doctors," adding, "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."

Dr Hassan said that it is ironic that government doctors are allowed to run private hospitals, because of which the poor and the underprivileged people suffer the most. They also deserve better care, and they cannot afford to got to private hospitals, pointed out the doctor. He said, "There should be complete segregation of sectors like those who want to work in private sector, they should be allowed to go and new doctors should be recruited who will work only in medical colleges," adding, "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."

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