Had the Government devised a common fee structure for treatment at private hospitals the patients won’t have to face the exploitation at every stage of their treatment at private hospitals.
Hospitals whether established by Government or set up in private sector have to ensure the delivery of health services to people both promptly and as well as at affordable rates. Unfortunately allegations are galore that woes of patients and attendants begin with arguments on counseling fee, charges for diagnostic tests and exceptionally higher rates for the medicines at the retail drug outlets set up inside private hospitals across Jammu & Kashmir. Had the Government devised a common fee structure for treatment at private hospitals the patients won’t have to face the exploitation at every stage of their treatment at private hospitals. The laxity shown by the Government in regulating the fee for both the delivery of health services and as well as rates for diagnostic tests and medicines at retail drug outlets inside the private hospitals has emboldened them to charge patients both for the services and the medicines and diagnostic tests as much as they can. Some of the private hospitals recently established in Srinagar are charging people for both the health services and as well as the medicines and diagnostic tests so hugely that middle class people prefer Government hospitals which are already overcrowded with huge flow of patients from dawn to dusk. People of low income groups denied the opportunity of a better treatment on affordable rates at private hospitals are upset with the system of accountability devised by the Government for the private hospitals in Jammu & Kashmir. More irritating for the people is the reduced quality of healthcare facilities at private hospitals as deaths due to negligence of doctors are reported from most of the private hospitals month after month.
“Matters like long duration waiting times, overcharging for the diagnostic tests and rates of medicines at pharmacies at the pharmacies in private hospitals come next to professional conduct of doctors and paramedics as healthy safety of the patients is the top priority for the Government at both the private and as well as Government hospitals. The regulation of private hospitals in view of the increasing vulnerability of health safety of the people necessitates an immediate intervention from the office of the Chief Minister and the Health Minister.”
Unfortunately the Government takes a very lenient view of such deaths at private hospitals and even leaves such matters uninvestigated in most of the cases despite huge resentment and resistance from both the families of the victims and as well as the general public. Undoubtedly private hospitals are run on profits they earn from the health facilities but collapse of the treatment procedures or the health facilities are absolutely intolerable. In a situation where the authorities take matters related to deaths caused due to negligence of the doctors so leniently that they don’t bother to investigate such deaths the onus is on the Government to curb the increasing helplessness of the gullible patients at private hospitals. Matters like long duration waiting times, overcharging for the diagnostic tests and rates of medicines at pharmacies at the pharmacies in private hospitals come next to professional conduct of doctors and paramedics as healthy safety of the patients is the top priority for the Government at both the private and as well as Government hospitals. The regulation of private hospitals in view of the increasing vulnerability of health safety of the people necessitates an immediate intervention from the office of the Chief Minister and the Health Minister.
