Union health minister plans to make doctors, hospitals accountable for every stage of treatment they prescribe.
Here’s good news for patients. The Centre plans to bring in regulation to reduce arbitrariness in private medical practice, and to hold private hospitals and doctors accountable for every stage of treatments they prescribe. For this, the Right to Information Act will also be made use of.
Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told DNA he wants doctors to put on record the reasons for every prescribed diagnostic test, and admitting a patient to hospital if he or she is not in a serious condition. “The idea is to eliminate excessive and unwanted procedures. Patients, if not required, should not be hospitalised and there should be no expensive treatment,” Azad said. “Doctors cannot prescribe tests without giving reason. No information should be hidden; everything has to be put on record.”
“There are cases where doctors have taken out kidneys where they had to remove the gall bladder. There are cases of doctors putting stents in patients when not required. Such malpractices have to stop.
“Doctors and clinical establishments cannot charge arbitrarily from patients; there has to be some reasoning behind the charges. For instance, for ultrasound or MRI, different clinics charge different rates within the same locality.”
The health ministry is drawing up regulation to ensure uniformity of charges on medical services and accountability of doctors. “The rules will ensure that no fee can be charged at will,” Azad said. Doctors’ fees and charges for diagnostic tests will be fixed by an experts’ committee; an agency will enforce the regulations.
A ministry official said the regulations are being prepared in a “top secret” manner, as the government expects strong resistance from the medical fraternity, feelers of which were sent to Azad by some doctors in his own ministry.
“For MRI, while government hospitals charge Rs500, private hospitals and clinics charge between Rs5,000 and Rs13,000. Overheads of private hospitals are high and patient load less. By overcharging patients, they make money. But the patients are harassed,” said a ministry official.
Azad believes the health sector will be regulated once the Clinical Establishment Bill (Regulation and Registration), 2007, is enacted. Once it becomes law, it will check medical malpractice and substandard service. Clinical establishments would be subject to government scrutiny and rated for their quality, facilities and services. They would also be made to ensure that no hospital refuses a patient in emergency.
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