Arun Gadre, medical practitioner and social activist from Pune, said the general public, who approached private healthcare following quantum corruption in government healthcare, appeared to be losing patience following a host of illegal and immoral practices in the former.
Speaking on ‘Ways to treat the sick health sector’ on the occasion of fifth anniversary of Association of Medical Consultants, Mangaluru, here, Dr. Gadre said incidents of attacks on doctors and hospitals speak a lot about public frustration. He alleged medical practitioners have become puppets in the hands of greedy pharmaceutical companies, corruption in the Medical Council of India, illicit practices by health insurance companies and fleecing by corporate hospitals. He said people have lost confidence in doctors following commercialisation of medical services. This has been aggravated by alleged fleecing by corporate hospitals. Mega hospitals empanel senior specialists for the sake of prestige while exploiting junior doctors, thereby making the latter frustrated, he said. Citing an example, he said private hospital managements threaten junior doctors with termination if they do not refer more number of outpatients to get admitted as in-patients to increase the hospital’s revenue.
He said it was high time that the entire medical fraternity stood together to uphold the dignity of the profession.
Shubhakar Bhandari, association president, K.R. Kamath, secretary, and others were present.
