Healthcare malpractices need to be checked upon

With the growing demand of quality medical facilities, the healthcare sector has grown as one of the biggest industry in terms of employment and revenue. Healthcare providers have adopted disruptive technologies and innovative solutions to cater people with best services.

Due to rise in non-communicable diseases engulfing people of all age, the demand for the quality service is on the rise. Sedentary lifestyle and fast food eating habits have made people vulnerable to fatal diseases like diabetes and heart issues. These are the reasons, why people want accessible and best healthcare services in cost efficient manner.

There are two category of medical facility providers i.e public and private. Off late Public healthcare facility has evolved still these are not at par with their private counterpart in terms of technology and infrastructure. Long waiting time makes things worse in public hospitals. 

As public healthcare providers are not standing up to the expectations, people look for quality healthcare facility at Private hospitals.

These private healthcare providers mostly corporate hospitals cater people with best facility but charge huge sum of money from patients. Many patients and families have found whimpering about the astronomical bills by these hospitals. Not only that, there are many case of medical negligence have also come to light where patients died due to carelessness of doctors at private hospitals. 

Government provides private hospitals land, huge tax concession and other facilities on the promise that they will share the benefit with poor and vulnerable class of the society. But the ground reality says it is not happening. 

Moreover, several norms are being violated at these hospitals. It has been found that families are forced to keep patients in ICU so that it would bring more money to the hospital. The worst-case scenario is of reports of a patient being forced to be on ventilator when it was unnecessary after a couple of days or when the patient was already brain dead. But they would have billed him for 10 days.

In this backdrop, Government needs to regulate healthcare sector. There should be a regulatory body which can oversee things so that patients get best facility. A regulatory body is need of the hour which can inspect all facts both from patients and hospital’s angel and pass the judgment.

Though Government has tried to streamline things with slew of measures, still lots need to be done on this front. Implementation of rules is critical. 

Government’s goal to provide quality and accessible healthcare will only be fulfilled when a regulatory body will keep a tab on malpractices by the private healthcare providers. Some States including Delhi have taken a step in this direction. Delhi Government’s proposals — capping medical costs, regulating medical packages, prescribing drugs only from the National List of Essential Medicines will prove to be a big boon to patients and their aggrieved families.