Recently Karnataka Govt issued a new bill which is known as The Karnataka Private Mrdical Establishments(Amendment) Bill 2017, which has attracted a wide spread agitations from medical fraternity across the state, and most of the private doctors and other institutions are striking.
The main clauses of this bill is that
-for each and every medical services the rates will be fixed by govt and no private establishment can charge more than prescribed rates
-Any doctors or establishments if found charging more than the prescribed charges are liable for stringent punishment.
-the punishment can range from six months to three years jail term or fines ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 5 lakhs.
-the hospital should handover the bodies of the patients after the death, instead of holding on to them for payment of dues.
The above are some of the key clauses of the bill.
Some refined provisions of the bills, which nave been issued afterwards are
-No pvt clinical labs near govt hospitals.
-the patients complain to be disposed off in 45 days time.
-Courts can not take cognisance of offence except in some cases,which will be decided by registration authority.
-Provision to publish draft cost of treatment and hospital charges, inviting objections and prescribing the same adherence by private medical establishments, this responsibility lies with the registration authority.
The private medical establishments and other private practioners have raised strong objection to this bill, as they claim that the cost of establishing medical hospital and providing medical services have steeply gone up, and the efficient & quality services can not be provided at the rate prescribed by the authorities. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) and private medical establishments want the govt to consider the recommendations made by committee headed by former chief justice of Karnataka High Court, which had said that there can not be two set of rules for private and govt hospitals. As this bill leaves out govt hospitals from the ambit of legislation meant to ensure efficient and timely treatment of patients and curb malpractices.
My views on this is, agreed that private hospitals are charging very high rates, but is this the way to curb the malice, by telling them to charge the prices which are not sustainable. If the govt is so worried by the cost of services then why the govt is not opening more hospitals at their cost. Govt wants the private corporate group to invest in medical services, but these corporate are not doing business for charity and they will charge according to their financial model.One more thing which I can not understand that the Karnataka is one of the pioneer state which started private medical colleges , who were admitting students by taking capitation fees, and other states followed. The cost of medical education has become so expensive that the doctors while doing private practices can not sustain themselves if they do not charge to cover their establishment expenses, overheads and profits.
As per our constitution providing healthcare to the citizens is one of the primary responsibility of the govt, and now govt is shirking away from the duty and they want private corporate to do their duty at govt prescribed rates, which will be never feasible.
While reading about this law , I came to know that similar law has been enacted by Bengal govt also. I wonder why the media( print and visual ) never discussed this item. I have never seen a news item on this issue in any of the newspapers of Mumbai. As both of these states are ruled by non BJP political parties ( TMC and Congress), and imagine if this type of draconian law was proposed or brought by any state ruled by BJP then all the political parties and TV channels and print media would have created such a ruckus that you can not imagine. I was also not aware of this news item, while browsing on the net I came across this news item saying that the private health services in Karnataka are coming to standstill then I started probing further.
What you say my friends about this issue,
Waiting for your response and feed backs.
R. N. Mungale.
It is government’s prime responsibility to provide affordable medical services to public. Expecting private sector to do this is not realistic.